Pride and Humiliation
by Engineer Jess
Summary: Continues from #5. A crash-land, isolation, confusion, the unknown... Team Lightyear is lost. In the middle, Buzz' world shatters, tossing him back in the darkness...
1. Lost

**Author Notes: This story continues The Phantom Menace a few months after its ending. I haven't finished that story, due to my disappointment with the ending I wrote. The last missing chapters of it are not anyhow crucial concerning this story. The Gate is shut down, the Galaxy saved, and Team Lightyear with its company returns to their normal lives. I'll finish it some day, when I figure out a better ending for it. Yet, I was told to post this story, so I did put it up. The characters are possibly out-of-character (especially Buzz), so apologies for that. I have written this story slowly since late July, so similarities to anything are unintentional. Buzz Lightyear of Star Command © Disney/Pixar. SW elements © Lucasfilm. There's even more stuff that doesn't belong to me either.**

**Episode VI**

**Pride and Humiliation**

"Uhh…"

"Ouch… oh, my aching back…"

Moans. Silent moans were heard here and there.

"B-Buzz Lighty-y-year mission log…" another weary breath began, "Stardate four-zero-seven-two… Star Cruiser 42 has run off course en route t-to sector four…"

"B-Buzz? Is that y-you…?" a feminine whine asked, "A-are you all right?"    

 The man's deeper tone went on, "I-I've crash-landed on a strange planet… T-terrain seems a bit u-unstable…"

"Bu-buzz? Sit down, you're still staggering…"

"No readout yet if the air is breathable… ouch!" The speaker found himself on his stomach on the ground. His aching legs had given in to try teetering, and had collapsed.

Mira shook white dust away from her space suit, and pushed a large, heavy piece of scrap metal from over her stomach. Grazes and crumbs smiled at her, while she peeked through her visor. A reedy hole, the size of a woman's palm, had appeared in it.

"Buzz… the air _is breathable…" she noted jadedly._

Some meters away from her, another dunghill stirred. A woman dug herself out. She stayed sitting on the heap, leering bemused around. Taking her bubble helmet down, she took a good inhale of the fresh, windy air.

"Drat…"

"You're OK, Zarah…?" the Tangean lend her a hand.

"Umh… I guess so…"

"Booster? Where's Booster?" suddenly was cried out. Only three persons were present, visible. But the preliminary panic was soothed, as garbage stack undulated, and the Jo-Adian's dizzy head popped up. "Ohh, how beautiful all the sweet, tweeting chaffinches are…" he deliriously swayed from right to left, unearthing himself gradually from the mess mountain. However, this was the squad at hand. How much XR was hollered and wept after, he did not even caw.

Fifteen minutes passed. Buzz had won his vertigo, and started raking through the litter mounds. Mira and Zarah both helped Munchapper to sit in the grass, away from the smolders and reek. Gradually the earth found its position in his eyes, not any more acting like a sway. The birds flew away, and the chirruping shifted to the wail of wind. And Buzz, turning upside down a white, metallic hull piece, came up with a saddening view. The lost robot ranger was lying under it in tens of pieces. Whole his middle body was crooked, his head at least in seven separate parts cluttering at the bottom of his broken visor. The power was off, a comatose scene was he. Lightyear sighed deep, buried his head in his palms and sat at the graveyard of Forty-two. All was lost, was it?

Still a few hours ago, everything had been cheering with the sparkle of the solar systems. Zarah Darkmatter had stepped out of a conference hall on the teeming planet of Winduu. A scientific summit meeting was behind. Almost three weeks of negotiating, listening to lectures and debates, keeping speeches and sharing knowledge would lastly end. She would be free to run in to her Master's enfold, free to give a warm hug to her daughter. The several weeks in isolation from her family had felt like an Ice Age of sentiments. Warp, due to his work, had not been able to share the time with his Lady, and analogously for her the work trip to this summit had been more than obligatory. There would have been finally settled the fortune of landanah, in the hands of thousands of skilful experts.

Team Lightyear's patrolling route had swept past the constellation where Winduu bathed in gravitation. Just a small swerve it had been for 42 to land there, and pick up Choi. She was traveling to Capital Planet, and so were the space rangers. A lift was arranged. Warp was contacted, and he would be on his way to Star Command, to receive his wife when the star cruiser would glide smoothly to the launch bay. So it had been planned… and everything had seemed to go with a swing. But who could augur the rumbling skies, the uncanny odds… Something had gone wrong; forty-two had erred on its route, deciding to guide its passengers to an almost fatal odyssey.

----  

A quick health study among the survivors was made. No one had luckily worse injuries, if bruises were not calculated. The space suits had protected the creatures well in the accident. But as the costumes were checked out, _they definitely had armfuls of defections._

"Let's see… what _works?" Buzz sighed, banging helplessly his wrist communicator. It did not give a chirp back, when he tried the comlink frequencies._

"My laser works!" Booster announced solemnly.

"Let's see… compass, thermometer, calculator, Babelfish translator, a holo-reader… those are ok." Nova examined her wrist talker.

"The com channels or radio frequencies won't work there either?" Buzz asked.

"Nope, unfortunately."

Everything else was then ready for landfill. The space uniforms were seemingly intact, but the jetpacks, most of the lasers, and other necessities were out of function. Booster eyed sadly at XR, who had no life or sense in his defunct circuits. The Captain had gathered his parts up, and brought him also in the grass.

"By the way… any idea where we are?"

Buzz scanned his brains, and the travel's course. The depart from Winduu had been tranquil, and after the Tuskenz System, the jump gate to hyperspace had been activated. But then something peculiar had occurred. In a cross of twelve wormholes, something must have had gone to woods. 42 had abruptly gained immeasurably speed, its structures not sustaining that kind of traveling. The star cruiser had begun to shatter, crackle in its joints… and at the last moment, Buzz had reversed the jump gate, appearing straight to the cloudy atmosphere of some planet. And then, black. The last mementos concerned him lying on trash. "I think… we were accidentally caught in _excess-space. The place, where travel goes faster than the lightspeed. It's a really, really small odd that wormholes can blend to such a superchannel, but it might explain what happened to us. But where on Pluto could we be now…?" he rolled around in the lawn. Distant forests surrounded the open place from every side. The view to every single direction was like on Tellus, or Morph, or… _

"Planet Yrmh? Could this be Yrmh?" Booster suggested.

Zarah shook her head. "No, look at the sky. There's six moons showing themselves. Yrmh's a moonless fellow." 

Buzz count the distances arduously. "We left Alpha Quadrant's sector nine. And I'm positive we _did arrive to Gamma Quadrant. But this is not Morph. Morph has two moons. Corellia? It's near Capital Planet, and has plentiful of forests, and eleven medium-sized satellites. Hmm… some of them could be in their dark phases. But… if this is Corellia, about which I'm definitely sure now, the towns are not more than one day's walk distance from each other."_

"Hmm…" Mira was somewhat skeptical. "Hopingly. If we are on Gamma Quadrant."

The crash-landers stood up. "So, shouldn't we be leaving? I can't see houses here. We possibly need to walk some time so that we can get help. Everyone ready for a saunter?" 

"Uh…" Booster scrambled up, stretching his aching limbs. "Ranger Munchapper reporting for duty, Sir!"

Everything that could be saved from the ruins, were taken with. Some half-burned food, drink rations, and other miscellaneous objects were found. Booster set XR's parts in his backpack. Thus the depart began. From the dry meadow, where the remains of Star Cruiser forty-two still smoldered, Team Lightyear and Zarah chagrin in their hearts began hiking towards the edge of the woods that loomed in the horizon. The air was brisk, and occasionally a petty cold breeze titillated the cheeks of the roamers. It seemed to be a late autumn here, as the heathland had here and there dyed maroon. The forest further there glowed as colorfully, with golden, red, and brown tints crowning the hardwood. Here and there were green spots, and under the travelers heavy feet were trampled the last flowers of the passing year. Sweetish fragrance of some unknown plants hovered to everyone's nostrils.

"Brings a lot of memories in my mind…" Zarah clothed her thoughts into words. "I remember years ago… I wandered a bit like this with Warp…"

"On that Yrmh?"

"Yep…" Her pale face turned gloomy, as she had thought finally to sleep this night in _his arms, after the long trip. Three long weeks the little woman had missed her daughter, and her mate's gentle warmth. Now it suddenly felt like a distant dream, as she traipsed here in the falling night. In the unknown._

Silence. Silence reigned for a long while.

"Do you guys think we can soon find someone to help us?" Booster uttered almost after half an hour of complete stillness. While that, the grassland had turned bushier, and little tree-stumps specked it here and there.

"I wish I'd know. Anyone can spot a house somewhere? A phone-call to Star Command might come in handy."

"Nope. Just forest." Nova glanced around.

"In that case… we may need to stay the night in the open air." Lightyear primed his lips. 

"But where? We have no tents or blankets, just…"

"We don't necessarily need those", Choi began dryly like some expert. She knew it too well, what it was like to sleep out in the frost night without a proper shelter. "Space suits keep the warmth, fire is easy to make. Only we need to ration the food and water."

"You'd become a good survival course trainer", Buzz gave a guffaw. "Well, space rangers are used to that. All kinds of situations may happen on the patrols. More concerned I'm about the possible wildlife there may be in the forest. Since we don't know if we have landed in backwoods or just in rural outskirts."

"Well, not too long we can stay out of the range of civilization. We got food for about two days and drink even less", Nova began sternly.

"Nah… very unlikely that we'd have to stay here later than possibly for tomorrow noon. There has to be some colonization near."

But G'Deneb and the Princess did not agree with this in their minds. There could be a week of divagating ahead. And even, as this whole planet shone with its unknown site, the odds became bleak.

The last orange rays of the sun had vanished beyond the treetops as the team entered the thicker copse. The darkness grew deeper already in the brush. A couple of faint stars were lit on the purple sky. The feeble wind soughed amid the yellow and red leaves, putting a few of them fall down. The intact grass was already stippled by them. Apprehension had somewhat grown, as the voyage went on. No beaten ways were found in the freely sprouting vegetation, no man-made ditches, nothing.

-----

Warp Darkmatter took a walk to and fro on the flight deck of Star Command Headquarters. Jumpy he glanced at his timer every other second, growling to himself, "Two hours late! Babe was supposed to be here quasary two hours ago! Lightspeed is invented, where the heck does that junk ship grovel? In a swamp?" Under his arm he was carrying a tot, who fretfully tried to meddle his space suit's wing releasing button all the time.

"No, no, no. Keep yar itchy fingers away from that, or daddy's gonna crash trough the ceiling. Why dontcha play with this hairy pal I bought ya?"

He sat down to bounce a blue-haired bear-looking plushie in front of the tittering girl. "Sully comes and Sully goes, 'Groaar' he says and goes to dinner with Zurg."

"Give me!" she ripped the plaything from his hand, and at next tried to pull its head off.

"Alright, do what ya want with it, but don't finger poppa's buttons. Heh, ya're just like my babe, already interested in all kinds of tech widgets."

But his nervousness grew. The third hour had expired, and Star Command's night shift brought other rangers to wander along the corridors. "That's it. I'm waiting no more. They said they're gonna be late, but this is too much. I'm callin' there an' earfullin' that Lighthead. I want my babe here and now. Her Master needs her. And needs her a lot. And the kiddie needs too." Dialing Buzz' wristcom code, he prepared to a vid-session.

Waiting, waiting, waiting. The link gave only cosmic noise. "What the dratted raisin…?" he banged the buttons. Nothing. Next try, Zarah's wrist communicator. And the result was the same, only the crackle of a broken connection rattled not so merrily to him.

Abruptly Warp's face faded, and his hackles rose lightly up. There was some problem now, this was fairly abnormal. Quickly he picked his daughter up, and breezed towards Commander Nebula's office.

"Let's see, if that grizzled ol' walrus is still in its cave… he's got a lot to explain where that Lightbulb-team is."

Zeb's experienced mien was drawn to a stern frown, as he discovered the same results. Nothing was heard from Team Lightyear, whatever he tried. Even XR's internal com channel stood quiet like an old rubber boot.

"Now would someone tell me what's the problem?" Darkmatter sulked alone in the Commander's office corner. Ay'noh teemed along the floor, playing football with the toy's currently loose head.

"Craters, I don't know!" Zeb crumpled. "This is not normal. They never shut the comlinks. Blast, the only reason I could pick up is, that they're in an ion storm area, or something. Or some signal distorts the frequencies."

"Hardy-har. The slime worms from the Gate are gone. They're not distorting anything." Warp frowned.

"Well… not necessarily talking about them. Hmh… What if you go home, _ex-ranger, and I'll keep the vidphone on in case I hear something. I'm sure they'll be here soon." The Commander clapped his hands together, shrugging towards the door._

"Quasars. 'Soon' is too long!" the alien grated his teeth, and left the office. Home… it did not feel like a home without _her.   _

The shadows descended. The meadows were far behind, and the tired strays had sat down at the roots of an old tree, something that looked like a giant, ancient oak. A little bit of water, some protein-carbohydrate cookies and a bite of chocolate… that was the sparse supper. Several miles were left behind, and in places the terrain had been everything but foot-healing. And as the light grew scanty, no more distances could be cut.

"Doesn't seem quite much of a suburb", someone mentioned through the munching.

"Hmm… seems that we are forced to walk some time before we may find habitat. Blast, and I was hoping to enjoy a hot shower at home on Capital Planet!" Buzz drew his hood aside, probing his somewhat greasy hair.

Zarah's smile faded. The mention about home was bitter to hear. Melancholically she noted that some kind of sleeping post should be found. Mira suggested climbing up to the tree, and that made everyone turn their skeptical gazes towards Booster.

But, sometimes when impossible seems too impossible, it is not impossible any more. The branches were firm as steel, and it did not cause trouble for the big Jo-Adian to find a snug fork a bit lower in the tree. Buzz and the rest were accommodated somewhat higher, and they tied themselves so that they would not fall down. But the ancient branches were wide like sidewalks, had all kinds of safe, canyon-like crotches. Coils, spirals, all kinds of tunnels they formed, growing hanging moss to make the beds softer.


	2. The anguish grows

The dawn opened humid, and grey. The air stood flat, and no brush gushed in the trees. Some golden leaves drifted down, and one of them sat on Booster's nose. "Uhh… is it morning already?" he yawned, stretching his rotund shape. "Owww…" a pain went along his back. The fork had felt so comfy in the twilight, but it had made his limbs stiff during the dark hours. Mira, Buzz, and Zarah woke up to his rustling. All of them had the equal dilemmas, numbing lumbalgia and backache smarted nastily.

"Ouch, ouch, this tree did a trick to us!" Lightyear moaned. "If the next night has to be slept out, we're staying on the ground."

"What's gonna keep the animals away, if there even _are such things? These woods seem somehow dead." _

"Fire", Zarah murmured, clambering down. The sky forecasted a hot day, regardless of the season. The hoods and gloves could be tossed aside, as the walk after the breakfast would commence.

------

Over two days had passed since the crash-land. Haggardly the lost were dragged along in the burning scorch of the sun. The forest was left behind, and the line was drawn towards the glimmering river in the zenith. Water was almost drunk, the rations were swallowed. Everyone's mouths felt torrid, they were made to swallow a sand desert. Some miles of pastures were still ahead, before anyone could mollify their pungent dry throats.

"I can't… any more…" Booster flopped down among the late fall flowers.

"Phew… maybe we could keep a pause", Buzz sat sighing opposite to him. He poured the last, lukewarm drops of his drinking water down his trachea.

"Well, some suburb, right!" Mira sneered, "Maybe we should have taken another direction. Where's the ranch with its warm beds now, as Mr. Scoutleader yesterday promised?"

Buzz grated his teeth. According to all the logic, they should have had bumped to a farm, already. If this was Corellia, the cities were not so far away from each other. He felt it irritating that he was possibly wrong with his assumptions. And when even his team members began scarifying him about it, he had problems to hold fully his temper. The elapsed twenty-four hours had been everything but undoubting from their side.

"Well you have eyes for looking! Watch the horizon, fly over the rainbow, whatever." He muttered back, trying to dig his pockets to feel whether there would be a forgotten chocolate bar left.

"Buzz, you don't have to be so impolite. I was throwing in a joke. That was not supposed to be taken literally", she looked at him with an odd glance.

"Umh, yeah", he slurred something. Maybe she had meant nothing. Or had she?

"What's with Buzz?" Booster shyly whispered to Nova.

"I don't know. He has those moods. He's tensed, I can see that."

Half an hour the melalgias were healed, and then the strolling continued. In the high reed and grass, the progression was not that breezy. The midday's sunbath did not cuddle Team Lightyear's sweating backs. But as the hours went by, the river looming beyond a thin shore copse was achieved.

"Ahhhh…" Buzz had set himself on his stomach on the steep, and sunk his face in the icy, brisk water. He drank like a hydrodipsomaniac camel. The others were soaking their fuming feet in the stream.

"Anyone got soap?" Mira asked. "My hair feels pretty, pretty nasty." She received shakes of heads as response. Zarah scrambled up, and sat beside her. She pointed at her own, fixed braid she had made. "Put your hair in some tight coiffure, which is easy to stick under a hood or something. We won't possible be resting in a sauna for a while. Well, don't you think I'd like to have a piece of soap?" Choi guffawed, "Look at my jubilee hairdo! I feel the grease dripping down my forehead, already." Mrs. Darkmatter, regardless of her melancholic spirit at first, was now on a better humor. She somehow had adapted to the sudden situation, thinking that this was one of the setbacks life always did put across the road. And mourning with worrying would not assist it at all.

"In any case, we need to stop being anxious about lipsticks and junk. After a week, or two weeks more wildlife, we look like brownies in any case!"

Lightyear's angry snap cut short her laugh. "Blast! We're not gonna be _that long here! Corellia is a thickly populated planet, and the town is just behind the corner. So don't start painting dangers on the walls, by craters!"_

Silence. The gapes turned to him. Why was the Captain so irksome?

"Buzz, this isn't Corellia", Mira sighed.

"Of course it's Corellia. What else do you think this is if not Corellia?"

Mira rose up from her spot, padding along the soft grass with her bare feet. "Look around you. This is _not Corellia. Look at the river, where does it take? We can see it miles long from here, do you see any harbor, any wharfs? There have been no planes flying in the sky, not even zeppelins. And what's wrong with you? You don't have to be mad at us if you're wrong. Everybody makes mistakes."_

Frowning he murmured that maybe she was right after all. But for his pride, it was a big knock that _he was wrong! It could not be, his ranger instinct would make him __always be right! Buzz Lightyear is never unsure!_

New plans were needed. Since the group was obviously a lot worse lost than they had initially thought, the probabilities grew dimmer. First of all, where would they go? Where would they find food? And Lightyear would have to hold his fuming temper, if he wanted to be cooperative at all.

"Could we follow the river?" Munchapper suggested.

"Uh-huh, that's a good idea. What comes to rations… maybe we could find something in the forest?" Choi pointed with her finger towards the bushes. After the meadowlands, another, even thicker woods fanned out, following the course of the bourn. Behind the lighter hardwood, it transformed into conifer forest. The soil was turning drier. In places, during today's peregrination, swampy fields were crossed. Little life squirmed here and there. Rodents, insects, some kind of giant spiders, and bird-like creatures peeked out of nooks and notches. But unfortunately they had no means for contacting Star Command.

"Alright, food. Craters, my stomach howls like a lone wolf", Buzz moaned.  "Alright, troops, let's get up and go pick up something."

"Like what?"

"Umm… berries, mushrooms, roots, umh… some veggies. I dunno. But ranger Nova, your molecular detector works. So we can check out that we're not eating anything poisonous."

Zarah was concerned about the weather. As the midday's blaze had turned milder hours ago, and the evening went ashore, a cruel wind from the north gradually mounted. It brought rainclouds along, portraying the northern sphere already grizzled. Some billows were by now summoning the sun, jostling its rays away. 

"Hmm… let's hope that the nimbuses pass by without pouring here. But… we don't necessarily need to build a shelter. If we just put our visors down, our suits will protect us perfectly from the wind and rain", the Captain remarked. "Well… those of you who have intact visors."

 Nutrition was now more important. The boots were put back on, and the space suits' upper parts detached to their positions. The team strolled inside the yellow deciduous forest. Golden leaves danced around them, as a blow swept the treetops. At the roots of one meager willow were growing plump, brown boletuses. They were scanned with Nova's widget, and no harmful ingredients were discovered. Booster, who had playfully footed in with the rhythm of the frolicking leaves, had crashed backwards to a bush. And what was there! Roly-poly red berries that oozed sweetness! He brought an armful of them to the others, and they complacently sat on the mossy mould to dine. Later, under the umbrella of a hoary pinewood, was put up a fire. A shower was already erupting from the skies, but the branches protected the red, gentle flames. The boletuses and mushrooms tasted delicious when they were roasted. Even Buzz' arrogant-esque feeling improved.

The rain had ceased. The bubble helmets were not needed for a while. And as there was still weak light coming through the dark, up-hovering mass, it was decided to promenade at least a mile or two. Pursuing the flux of the meandering flumen, Team Lightyear at least hoped to see the skyscraper tops somewhere. But… nothing. Nothing was in sight. In addition, before an hour had lapsed, Booster began pitifully whimpering because of stomachache. Obviously he had enjoyed too much of the red berries. He was laid to rest on a bracken bed. However… that was not maybe the brightest idea, either. Half an hour more, and he was sneezing, sputtering, whimpering even further. And not just he, but Zarah's eyes were puffed up, her nose sniveling. The brackens and ferns the area was full of, evidently had started an allergic reaction.

Hence the dell was forced to be left behind. Booster wriggled distressing forwards, holding his storm-tossing tummy. Achoos accompanied the steps, yet the bubble helmets aided with breathing some spore-free air. But as there was no handkerchiefs available in miles, the noses dripped freely. Choi did definitely not look like any fashion model with her greasy hair, and lips that were bleeding because of too much spattering.

"Ow, quafars, I wisf I'fe daken dad genedic dherabfy bow…" she cursed through the snuffing, "Bud I dhoughtd Cabidal Blaneb and uhbh… by hobe bladet haf no stubid brackebds…"

"Do we have _any medicines with us?" Nova asked concerned._

"Nuh-huh. I couldn't find the first-aid kits from the ruins of forty-two. They must have exploded, or something", Buzz sulked.

"So in case, if anyone of us gets a wound or something, we can't even bandage it? What?"

"Look, blast, it's not MY FAULT we're stuck up here like this!" he screeched, losing his half-good mood completely. He kicked a tussock out of his road. Moping, he deliberated, "Darn it! What do they acclaim next? That I'm responsible of their allergies? Why didn't they bring their own meds and keep them in pockets?" The darkened man was somewhat out of his mind. He was heavily disappointed in his failure, wanting to get his boots out of this periphery and fast. Stress, nervosity little by little crept in his subconscious.

---Star Command---

Commander Nebula cringed in his chair, protecting himself with his arms. Over his desk, were leaned three cursing, flaming figures. They banged their fists to the table surface, roaring like jet motors.

"Blast! It's not MY FAULT if star cruiser forty-two is lost!" Zeb gathered his courage and rose up to yell back ears-splittingly. "I have done EVERYTHING I have been able to, to track them! And they are still being traced every single blasted second, even now!"

"You run this wacko station! I want my babe back!" Darkmatter foamed like a pack of rabid Karnian beasts. "Four days! I ain't listenin' yar blabber about some ion storms or frontier's traffic queues! Planet Winduu is inside the Galactic Alligator or whatever, and the travel from there _doesn't need waiting at some frontal station!"_

"Graarrrghhh!" Zurg brawled beside him. "Grhrhrrrrrrgggraaagrh…" getting no more but snarl -and not understandable words- out of his mouth, he decided to withdraw. His topic of course commented upon his son. He was furious to hear about the missing.

The third person, who also took some distance after Nebula's counterargument, was King Nova. Also four days ago (on Capital Planet the time was a bit different from the place where Team Lightyear was) he had been informed that a certain star cruiser had not arrived to its destination in time. Worried about his daughter, the princess of his 'superior' people, he had yesterday taken a royal vessel to Capital Planet. In addition… every three had the sense that something very awkward had happened.

The Commander went through one more time the facts, showing the triplet the holo-report done this far. Star Cruiser 42 had been seen leaving Planet Winduu right after the crystallotechnical summit was over. Some saved radar scans from Tuskenz System's outermost planet Raiderz indicated that at that rim the jump to hyperspace had been done. But after that were only the black skies showing empty hands… nothing. No comlink crackled. The talkers stood mute.

"Can't ya just send someone sniffin' around the hyperspace? Ain't your tech capable of finding energy traces there?" Warp snarled.

"No, we can't. Although we can float there, we can't just snuffle the waves there with hound dogs. By this day, the possible residues of the blastoff energies have dispersed."

The old king in his corner was beetle-browed. "I may have to think of taking my reign out of the Galactic Alliance, if it is not capable to find my missing daughter in time. And if it indicates that something fatal has happened to her, because of your Space Club, I may have to consider means of stronger character against your deeds."

This sounded like a declaration of war for Nebula. Dumbfounded, without finding an interjection to argue, he flopped slack to his seat. But Zora took the initiative -which was a big surprise- to defend the beaten Commander. He had never liked the Tangean king. In the days of his Empire he had been a mortal enemy, and now just an irritating person for him.

"Quasars, we do not need to mix up the political issues of your pathetic planet with this. If we do find Buzzy… uuhoo… Captain Lightyear, we find your princess. And do you comprehend, you lack-wit, that you are preventing the searching with threads like that!" He stormed with his over seven feet height to Nova, pointing at him with a long finger.

The king could have kept it as a slander that someone called his highness a 'lack-wit'. But he was actually _physically scared of the hot-tempered male. His bodyguards were outside the office, and before he could call them, that hairy hand might give him a bunch on the nose. So he contented himself to measure the old man with a scornful regard. "And with whom do I have the honor to speak? Hmm. Are you the strange father of Buzz Lightyear, claimed to be killed by Zurg? And then coming out of nowhere when the Empire falls? Hmm." Yes, King Nova was not aware of Zora's true identity._

"Hrmph." The black-haired did not like that muster. That red-beard was suspecting something. "I am who I am. But we do not need any pathetic war declarations here." Zurg came to think about the issue. Four days of missing was not quite the end of the world, yet. Of yore, he had kept Buzz as his prisoner for weeks, and then if when the Captain was lost.

"It is in _my hands. I do not need to listen to some lower being, who obviously claims to be something more supreme." Nova mooed, fumbling the door. He wanted to get out of the room before it would be too hectic. "I give you time, Commander Nebula. But if the results do not please me, I have to consider of my own ways." He found the latch, slinked out, and let the sliding door snap shut after him._

"Curse you, King Nova!" was shouted after him. Luckily the royal did not hear this, any more. 

Zeb at his desk sighed annoyed, "What does he think I am? I'm not Madame President. Come to _threat me like that! Craters, would you two at least keep your patience for a while? I'm seriously with my rangers and LGM's doing the best to find your family members!"_


	3. The Plains of Kaleva

The days in the forest went forwards. The weary wanderers slept furthermore outdoors, eating and drinking what nature had to provide. Buzz' nervousness had grown to excess measures. For his team members, he was occasionally a true annoyance. His pride was gushed, because he could not bring the mission to a good end. Star Command… his work needed him. The universe needed him elsewhere, not here in the bushes.

In any case, the team looked like tramps from the gully. Their suits were intact, but messy with mire. Buzz had a black stubble coating his jaws, in places where the normally tidily shaped beard did not extend. Zarah and Booster had been suffering from the allergies plentifully, so their noses were still stuffed-up. Anywhere they went, at the roots of the trees were peeking those nasty brackens. In addition, what came to the females… no beauty queen contests could be gone through with shaggy, oily locks.

The travel followed furthermore the river. In places the trees were brown, telling that the frost fell more and more briskly over the landscape at nights. The temperature variations were high. Burning in the daytime, freezing at nights. The depressing detail was, that no sign of intelligent life was seen anywhere. No cottages, huts, houses, even lodges were in sight. The fear grew, and with that the nervousness. How could anyone find their routes out of here? Who would ever find the lost?               

The next day had opened. It was a near midday, and the firkin had sat down to have meals. After the scarce, toilsomely gathered lunch was eaten, the wanderers woke up to the nasty silence. The thick forest seemed to have curdled in its own inanimaty. The air had been warm all the light hours, but now it felt almost tacky, as no whisper of wind buzzed among the trees. Every rustle had ceased.

"It's too quiet here", Mira glanced half-nervously around. Buzz wiped his mouth to his jumpsuit sleeve, agreeing that it was strange that even the autumn birds, or whatever they were, had quit their previously rather joyous play with notes.

"Seriously, I don't like this. It's always a bad sign, if the atmosphere starts resembling a graveyard."

"Hmm… good point. Maybe we should get our lazy limbs up and continue our aimless rambling", Buzz grunted, standing up.

"So, are we following the river furthermore?" Zarah asked.

"Sure. That'll most possibly lead us to the habitats of intelligent life forms, if they do exist in this pla…"

An ear-piercing screech stopped his babbling. Everyone sprung up like strained springs. Above the wind was heard a long howl, like a call of someone lonely and evil. It rose and fell, and soon received an answer, a hollo similar to that. As bloodcurdlingly this second screech sang, becoming evidently nearer and nearer with the first one.

"Oh, c-craters…" Buzz held his throat, where he could feel his fearful heart pumping. "We get ourselves away from here, and now!"

"W-what i-is t-th-that…?" Booster's teeth clattered together.

"I don't know. But it doesn't sound friendly! And it's coming this way."

The men and women threw hastily their belongings into a big mess inside their knapsacks. Yet, the wails were now staunched. Albeit that, the course was decided, and the pedestrians began a gallop among the exuberant underbrush.

"Blast, let's hope I don't ever have to see, what on Rhizome causes such a squall! In any case, we better hurry away, I have a bad sense that there are some kind of forest beasts on our trails", Lightyear panted, while the rushing had achieved a good speed.

"We would need to find a firm tree to climb up or some kind of cliff…" Nova measured the environment with her eyes.

"Yeah, but there's only these rather thin birkwood or whatever near…"

Another moan incised everyone's spines.

"Oh no…" came an utter, before the bushes crackled, and a huge, hairy creature hopped forth. Rising on its hind legs, the appeared bear-like monster revealed its sharp teeth, and flashed its long, pointed nails of its forepaws. It let a growl, and a piercing scream. Buzz in a reflex aimed the creature with his unworkable laser. The monochromatic light emitter kept only some hissing and sparkling, but did not fulfill its important task.

"Booster! Your laser works! Shoot it!" the Princess yelped. But for everyone's sad misfortune the red fatty had begun sneezing again. The ground was green of those ill ferns that had already caused too much trouble. The poor Jo-Adian fumbled half-blindly his laser, his eyes full of secretion and water.

"Aatch---oo!" He sputtered and fired to east and west, missing the brute completely. The others had run behind him to protect themselves, but quite much in vain. Another yellow-haired bruin came brawling from behind them, as big as a tank. This was obviously the one that had so kindly responded to the call of the first one.

Yet the wild animals had not fully attacked. They in a way prowled now, little by little closing a ring around Team Lightyear. Loud, fearful yells about required action echoed in the stale weather, in addition to the sibilant whizzes of laser rays that hit trees and other less meaningful objects.

"Booster! You have to…"

"Booster, shoot!"

"Atchoo! Achoo! Sneef!"

"HELP! SOMEONE HELP!"

The circle grew tinier and tinier. Saliva dripped from the maws of the bears, as they with greedy, soulless gazes already gorged their dinners. Tonight their table would be fruitful of fresh meat, if their appetite would be indulged. If the rain of sudden luck had not pattered upon the preys, they would have sunken to the cold swamp of death. Munchapper was so much in panic added to his sickness that he would have needed to gun at least half an hour before striking anything.

The loud breathes and drools of the animals were blended to a third, strange outcry.

_"Ayayayayayayyyy-ayayayayayayyyyyaaaayyyy!" a long war-whoop chimed in the trees, and something whizzed over the scrubs in a somersault. A strong hand drew tight a bow, making the first bear look like a pincushion in a few seconds. Zip, zip, zip. Slender arrows flew here and there, barely avoiding hitting the terrified crash-landers. Backs against each other, eyes wide as garage doors, they watched as the predators turned to besiege the interrupter. Blood painted their straw-colored furs maroon, as new and new darts were stung into their bodies. Soon, slumping lifelessly down on the grass, there was nothing else left from the behemoths but their dead carcasses._

The wind stagnated doggo. Buzz and his company shook all over, aiming their horror-struck gapes towards the corpses. The haze of fright was gradually blown away, and they could distinguish a svelte, tall figure wiggling from behind the morbid pile. It had arms high in the air, and a crossbow with five arrows still targeted forwards. As it met the trembling group, it slowly put down its efficient weapon, raising a hand to scratch its hair in wonder.

_"Keitaes kummia te olette?" it expressed a question of amazement in an alto voice._

Buzz noticed staring up at a young human-looking woman, who was several inches taller than he. Big, grey irises goggled back, below them curving a longish aquiline nose, and further below thick lips a bit open after the spoken sentence. The female had darkish, tanned skin, and her slim body was dressed up with somewhat peculiar garments. Clips and buckles were keeping together something that looked like a long, sleeveless shirt that continued almost until her knees. Under there were long, fringy suede trousers. From the colorful, wide belt were hanging a knife, a flagon, and some little implements. Her otherwise bare arms were covered with long, gravure-decorated gauntlets made of some flexible metal. They started from her shoulders and ended up to hide even some fingers under them. Around her long neck she had several necklaces, with seashells, glossy stones, and animal teeth as pendants. The black hair of this foreign was tightly gathered up to several little braids, which were again in a compact ponytail behind her head. Although her shape was lanky, her limbs were dainty, ending up to narrowish shoulders. Slowly she set the bolts back to her quiver, preserving her astonished essence. She seemed to hesitate a lot, and especially Mira and Booster were under her puzzled glance.

_"Oemh… siis… te ette taida olla taekaelaeisiae?"___

Nova knocked the nonplussed Captain's arm, whispering, "I think… that girl is trying to ask you something?"

Thus he took a half-official pose, raising his hand up to a salutation, "Greetings! Thank you, ma-am, for your cooperative help. I am Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, Universe Protection Unit. I come in peace. My ship has crash-landed here by mistake."

But the female only twisted her face, raising her brow, _"Mitae? Mitae ihmeen mongerrusta tuo on?"_

"She doesn't understand you", Zarah commented, abruptly remembering something, "Mira, didn't some parts of your wrist communicator work? How about the Babelfish translator?"

"Hey, good idea! It won't cost anything to try it out!"

Yet, the head-tilting tall girl had already walked to her. Even more confused she eyed at the Tangean. _"Sininen?"__ Nova did not much like the nuance of the glare. It felt as if someone had examined her as a rare zoo animal. The blue one pressed the buttons of her com device, probing the functions of the digital interpreting software._

"Now if we get her saying something else, the software could possible recognize the dialect she speaks." So she addressed a few words to the unknown one, getting the brown-skinned to express even more baffled miens. 

Buzz came to the middle, presenting formally, "This is Team Lightyear. As I said, I am Buzz Lightyear and I come in peace."

_"Eihaen tuosta ota kahelikaan selkoa."__ The woman began to be rather irritated. And, now Mira's device started wheezing. The half-wreck widget did somehow live, and translated the not-so-nice sentence to clear English._

_"Not even a moron will understand that jibberish", a metallic sonus sniveled. Strangely, it had identified the lingua. The screen showed to Nova that the software had dug itself to the nanodatabase of officially dead languages. __Sivakka, the parent language of __Suksi (that later was developed to __Suopa), was the match.  _

"Alright, she's probably on a bit, bit bad mood because she won't deal with our culture yet. Let's try if this thing can reversely chat to her", the Princess sighed. A yelp fled her lips, as she felt a forceful hold gripping her left arm. The unknown woman had snatched it up, inspecting and sniffing the wrist communicator.

"Hey, hey, let go!" Mira barked, and got the thingamabob to rattle the sentence with the other language. Abruptly she let go, goggling then a bit scared at the Tangean. In this case, someone more faint-hearted might have dashed away, but obviously there was courage enough in this female, if not to mention how she had slaughtered the two wild beasts a bit earlier.

A small discussion was stretched out. The stranger won her little discomfiture, and with the aid of the communicator, it was slightly easy to present some thoughts. Every one of the ramblers introduced him- or herself, and how they had got lost in the woods. At the point when Buzz began narrating about his broken space ship and asking for repair help, the foreigner drew her brows up, cutting short the whole causerie.

"You seriously do not claim you _came down from the sky?"_

"Well… that's what it is. And we'd need a working radio phone or relevant, so we could contact Star Command." Lightyear dryly presented his axioms. He was somewhat goaded that the discussion did go nowhere, and very much keen on getting away from this backwoods after one and half week's futile strolling.

"Star Command? Radio phone? Star Cruiser? You do have definitely fine-sounding words, but I have no idea what you are talking about. And maybe I am little by little starting to believe that you really have been dropped down from the sky, because you look so strange. Yes, well… our legends tell that thousands of years ago there came visitors from the clouds to greet our People, but that is just a story." She fingered her chin, her other hand on her hip.

Confusion struck Team Lightyear. This girl did not know about Star Command?

"Excuse me, but _where are we actually? What is this place? Who are you?" Mira put a finger on her lower lip._

"I am Yoka-hanen, the daughter of the honorable Vainamoinen. This is the surroundings of my village, Kaleva. It is near there, ashore the Great River Plutinaklutina-Noro." She whisked informally her fingers to some indefinite direction.

"_Kaleva? And that is… where? We'd need some coordinates of this planet and solar system, so that we could initialize our station." Buzz folded his arms over his chest._

"Planet? Solar system?" the interpreter software whirred.

A bad feeling crept in Team Lightyear. They had found civilization, but… what kind of civilization? Nova took a new view at the tall girl, checking out more her outfit and gear. No electric devices present, her hunting weapon was a basic wooden bow with some metal reinforcements.

"Umh… Buzz? I think she… doesn't quite understand what you are inquiring", the Tangean whispered to the Captain, who was more and more jumpy.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that…" And after she had ended her assumptions, his cheeks blanched. It had not been taken in consideration that maybe this planet was _not on the top of engineering. Lightyear had of course relied on that they could just easily dial Commander Nebula's comlink code, and soon chitchat cheerily with him._

A few more questions, and it was evident that Yoka-hanen was a membrum of a primitive culture. That came clear at least, when she amusedly asked, how Nova got her wrist talk like that. She had been searching for some small hunt for tomorrow's meal, when the squeals and alarmed shouts of the trapped had reached her ears. But, keeping the wanderers now as some other-village jugglers and ventriloquists, she had not the slightest fear towards them any longer. The Captain and his companion sensed her blatant skepticism, but did not want to heckle her any more. Adequate answers were not achieved.

But on her behalf, the savior noticed how exhausted and tired the bear-fighting oddities were. Buffoons or not, maybe they needed shelter. So waving her fingers, she called for them to follow her. According to the Kalevan, there were not many miles to walk, and she could possibly arrange them food and accommodation for the night. And gladly Team Lightyear with Zarah wended their fatigued way towards the warmness.

The orange light breach on the hazy sky was already low upon the zenith. Amidst the meager, white-baulk leafwood shimmered hemisphere-like cottages clustered at the foreland of the agile river. Beside the dwellings on the left, on a links field, surrounded by a fence, were strolling some kind of domestic animals and steeds. Leaded by the hunter, the gang descended a grassy hillside, entering a sandy path.

Slowly the quintet entered a vivid little local road. Women carried water and fuel wood, some had fresh hunt hanging from their loads. Young men blustered here and there, but not as multiple as the feminine Kalevans. Amazingly tall people they were, only Booster did not need to stretch his neck up. Buzz could have sworn that some of the peculiarly dressed men were a bit over eight feet tall. Yoka-hanen seemed to be rather short compared to some women, which reached seven feet in height. But in overall every one had the same specific physique. They were lanky, slim, and narrow-shouldered. Hardly anyone of this race could have dreamed of such thoraxes that for example Warp Darkmatter or Buzz himself owned.

The sandy path meandered gradually towards the tents that looked now gigantic compared to the view from the bank. They were put up from pelts, canvasses and their bases were made stout with wood and shale. Obviously several families fit to reside one of those round huts, so much there was space. Smoke was whirling from the flues they had in their roofs, telling that there waited warmth and roasted food. Further there, by the shoals of Plutinaklutina-Noro, twinkled even larger abodes. The girl explained them being the council- and common tents of _viisaat. According to her, they were honored men, a sort of philosophers that studied different kinds of sciences._

"Our wisdom is very old, but unfortunately not the same, as in the days before the great _Purkaus. But I do not know, I do not quite trust the legends. But like the Song of __Iku-Turso versifiers, they obviously could glide across the skies like birds", she lashed the air with her hand. "But that is for tales. I will take you to see the honorable Vainamoinen, and he will decide what to do for you."_

The fatigued hikers had on the background kept on their own think-over. Definitely, here they hardly could find a working vidphone. The settlement smelled even more backward they had feared. Chiefly those tall, colorfully costumed walkers on the trail brought Indians in their minds. Plumes, fangs and refined wee stones solemnized everyone's leather- or linen attires. Everyone's facial profile curved to a hooknose, while the skin color varied from lighter brown to reddish. No cars, or carriages. Shaggy draught animals waddled forwards with the more burdensome loads, and the lighter ones were dragged humanly on the backs. Yet, as the hunter had initially mentioned a familiarish name, Team Lightyear's attention was drawn back to her.

"Vainamoinen? Excuse me, but didn't you say you…" Zarah began.

Yoka raised a brow to her. It talked normally? It was too short to be a proper _ihmo__. What was that, the circus company's midget? In any case, this squad was already too peculiar, so maybe she could expect anything. They listened to her babble about the legends like they had never heard about those. __Viisaat was an unknown definition for them. "Yes, I did say he is my honorable father. The village chief, that is. In case you do not know, he leads the __viisaat, and is a very noble old __ihmo. You must remember to act moderate and properly in front of him, wherever you do come from then."_

In Mira and Zarah's minds, a quick question rose up at the same time. Their savior was not really the lowest in rank in this settlement. What did the daughter of the chief do in the forest?

Yoka-hanen considered this inquire quite abnormal. Why wouldn't she be hunting, doing the housework? How could it be anyhow else? "Why? You do ask why? Women are the hunters, women do the work. Why would there be any difference? I do not see that. My honorable _emo is dead, and I need to do her part in the house."_

"_Emo__?" Buzz scratched his hair. "Ranger Nova, what's wrong with that wrist communicator? It lets unknown words through."_

"I don't know", she annoyed pressed some buttons of the device; "There must be some defections in it. It won't translate everything."

"Emo? You do not know what is emo?" Yoka laughed back amused. "The one, who gave me birth, was she. But a sickness took her, and left my honorable father alone."

"Oh, oh… we're sorry", the team stammered. They had all thought the Kalevan was talking about some servant. But, now everyone grasped, what kind of society this was. Women were obviously below the men, forced to follow their every whim. They toiled, and what did the males do? According to Yoka, they were either warriors, craftsmen, or could become a part of _viisaat. So, their part was to __think. This commentary did not much please Mira, but Zarah understood it better, since in xaretša, she had accustomed herself to be Warp's submissive, his property. But their union was governed by strict laws, so that the Master was not allowed to maltreat his Lady, but had to provide her everything with gentle and care. However, the conversation went on calmly, as the hunter rustled along the footpath, towards the core of the village._

The travelers soon found out they had a big fan club following behind them. Already on the outskirts, wondering gazes were directed towards them. Now some local children had taken Mira as their target of marvel, trying to take her hands, shouting "_Sininen, Sininen!" Booster had twice as more court, and he had taken some of the smaller kids to ride piggyback. Merry yelps echoed here and there. Visitors were coming! __Emot, come out and see, Kaleva has visitors!_

----------------

Team Lightyear with Zarah felt quite odd and uncertain in the gigantic council tent. Along the walls, older and younger men sat on weaved carpets. Some of them were playing instruments and singing silently some epical songs. Some studied vellum-looking scrolls, obviously deeply focusing on sciences and mathematics. Some just lay on their places, scrutinizing the incomers with sharp looks. Braziers sizzled here and there, and dozens of little wooden lanterns with candles in them clung from the ceiling's framework. The atmosphere was dreamlike. A colossal, aflaming fireplace brought sweet warmth on the middle floor, its reek disappearing to the skies through the fume channel in the roof. This space of wisdom and arts was somehow isolated from the normal village life. The men were wearing white linen togas instead of suede and ruffles. Rather light everyone's costumes looked like to fit to the autumn evening, but the people were obviously inured to cold. These were the _viisaat, forming some sort of courtiers around the highest head. _

At the very rear end of the council tent, in a brightly illuminated spot, was sitting the village chief in a wooden throne. He was obviously near one hundred years in age, a stooped, white-haired man with a big Roman nose and piercing blue eyes. He had obviously become a father very late, since Yoka-hanen did not seem to be more than thirty years old. A huge headdress with blue and green feathers was resting above his brows. As regalia, he was carrying heavy, silver-blue-shining metal plates around his neck, arms and ankles. The earrings were similar to his daughter's ones, a square disc, and a round one with oval pendants.

The girl stood her head bowed in front of the austere ruler, and so tried Team Lightyear to imitate her manners to be polite. She had told about her extraordinary hunting-trip, and presenting the foreigners as some kind of lost other-villagers. But Vainamoinen did not quite agree with her.

"Do you not see, Yoka-hanen, who you have brought with you? You are partly creating a new legend, I assume. These people are not from our _Maa, but from the skies, from the clouds they have dived down. As did our ancestors live together with the men from other worlds, so have we been granted with such an encounter. Cannot you see, you skeptical child, who you have brought to our village? This is a grand day, grand day in the history of Kaleva!"_

"But honorable father, I do not see, why…" she a bit stubbornly disagreed. For her, a down-to-earth, bullheaded person, was somewhat difficult to harp on 'fairy tales'. 

"Do not disagree with me. I will ask myself who these strangers are. Step forth, unknown!"

Mira's wrist translator became the object of astonishment even now. Without it, every syllable Yoka-hanen or anyone else had produced, would have sounded like incomprehensible alien slur. And so Buzz summarized once more his odyssey. And the chief smirked, he had been right.

"So where did your ferry of the air land? Our warriors could go and see, and affirm your legend", Vainamoinen rasped. Lightyear described the place as much as he remembered, and the old man kept nodding self-confident.

"Yes, yes… those are the meadows of Pellervoinen. They are good hunting lands, when the thaw winds of summer blow above the grass. But, will you, who come with the wings of _Kokkolintu, present your company for me? Who is Sininen, and who are the others?"_

"Uhh… your honor? _Sininen?"_

"Sininen, the _ihmo with the speaking wrist."_

"Oh, oh, yes, you mean Mira? Ah, yes, she is Mira Nova, a Princess from Tangea. My team member. And this is Booster Munchapper, Jo-Adian, also a fellow space ranger."

Vainamoinen was not interested in the big, rotund alien. He looked like some family pet in his eyes.

"One of our crew is broken. XR is a robot ranger." More babble that was without content for the ruler. "…and this young civilian lady is Zarah Darkmatter, an energy economics engineer."

Obviously a sort of discrimination had laid its robes already on the foreigners. Vainamoinen had real respect only on Buzz and Mira. Zarah and the rest were only lower minions, maybe servants or something. That short wide-chest man with the black beard was obviously a majestic leader from his worlds, whereas Nova (now called Sininen) was maybe a virtuoso of wisdom and unknown technology. Maybe she was a _suuremo, or relevant. __Suuremot were honored, old women in Kalevan culture, usually the eldest females in grand families. Opposite to normal housewives, they could read and master legends, some of them even mathematics. But of course they were nothing compared with __viisaat, who were the most savant of all._

In any case, Lightyear and his crew were warmly welcomed to the plains of Kaleva. Vainamoinen ordered to put up two large tents for them, and prepare the baths and food. Well, the wanderers _did look quite much like beggars from gutters. Buzz' shaped beard had turned to a tangled half-stubble. Mira and Zarah's hairs were shaggy, greasy, and looked like pre-Rastafarian coiffures. Everyone had less or more dust graying their faces, and the outfits were dirty. As they were leaded out from the council tent, a group of village women was waiting for them outside. Amazingly fast young men were putting new teepees up, for the Captain a whole own one, and a second, common one for Mira and Zarah. Unfortunately, as Booster was considered as some kind of 'dog', he was accommodated to __suuremo Louhi's family hut._

The warm baths were provided in large, wooden basins. At that moment no one thought about the amount of work the preparing of those had required. The water was carried from the river, boiled in cauldrons, and kept warm with fire. But for the tired ramblers, it was heavenly to sink in the caress of the steaming tubs, and let every aching muscle relax. The sweat, the grease, the mud was rubbed away with balmy soap. The bathwater was sweetishly odorous of herbs. And soft linen and suede clothes waited on benches, wherever the bathers then stepped out of the vats.

The bears that Yoka-hanen had killed, could not be served so fast as food. A few men had hauled them from the forest, and they would be prepared for further days, for the grand welcome feast. Team Lightyear and Zarah enjoyed still square meals for supper, so they did not need to descend in the beds famished. However, this night, after all the strolling and surprises, the sleep dust fell upon them fast. Sweet drowsiness filled their inners. Buzz was directed to his private tent, which was put up almost beside Vainamoinen's family abode. A round hall it was, full of bestowed practical objects: little furniture, jugs, pots, mattresses, tapestries, tools, and such. This was the village's gift for the man from the skies. A soft mattress on the floor with pelts and thick, decorated fabrics as bed sheets awaited him. And there he soon lulled, and did not startle awake before tomorrow's bright sunbeams.

As mentioned, Mira and Zarah had to share the same tent. It was smaller than Buzz', but very much space it provided for the two women. And as for Mrs. Darkmatter's wish, the broken android was brought to huddle lifelessly in a random corner. For Choi was regarded as a servant maid, her sleeping post was arranged quite much inferior to Sininen's. But Mira lend her a pile of extra pelts. Hence neither one of them had to feel uncomfortable. Booster, sleeping in the lobby of Louhi's hearty family, did not complain at all. The best was that his stomach was full of good food, and he could cover himself until his ears with a thick blanket.


	4. The arrogance swells

At the bright dawn of the next day, Buzz stood at the entrance of his teepee, inhaling the wintry winds. "Ahhhh…" he breathed in smiling. Such freshness Capital Planet never had to offer. Getting back in, he took an earthen bowl in his hand. It was full of aromatic, hot soup. A young village woman had brought it to him a few minutes ago, with a pail full of warmed water for washing. The delicious food fondled his stomach, putting new energy in him to face the morning. After finishing it, he washed and shaved his extra stubble in shape, jumping then to his space ranger suit.

A grating, tiny footpath took Lightyear's steps towards the village center. On the left, towards the river, opened a large round square. Skillfully made wooden and stony statues, presenting animals and human figures, surrounded it. A bundle of stalls huddled on the other side of it. Although Kalevans were mainly hunters, they obviously dealt in with the other tribes. The main street bypassed the statues from left, leading by the council tents to the river's edge. At a sheltered petite bight, were hand-made boats waiting for the fishers. Behind him, out of his sight, were the stables and other sheds for the domestic animals. And beyond, even some patches. The forest gave mostly the food for the people, but some denizens wanted variation to their tables.

Buzz turned his eyes to the right. And there walked Mira and Booster along the footpath towards him. They had left their official uniforms away, traipsing in suede and linen. The Captain looked at Mira with an odd mien. Although he had seen her in her pink princess dresses, definitely not before in an orange-purple, heavily embroidered flax, with a headscarf.   

"Morning, Buzz!" she chirped. "Oh, these people are so nice! _Suuremo Vellamo's granddaughters brought us breakfast, towels and everything! The old lady is my neighbor."_

"Umm… where's Mrs. Darkmatter?" he noticed her missing.

"Oh, she's checking out XR, now that we're not sloshing about in the forest any more."

"Yeah… better get him fixed. He might be our way to connect Star Command, maybe even the last means." The morning's unconcern began fading from his mind, bringing the stress with impatience back.

"Buzz, you're too nervous. We don't know anything about tomorrow. The villagers are friendly to us, so why won't we just settle down and relax for a few days?" she suggested.

"Yeah! They got really, really good food here!" Booster patted gratified his tummy.

"Uhm, well… maybe a small time. But don't forget, troops, that we're badly lost!"

Taking eased taps towards the river's edge, the three comrades gradually got used to their new surroundings. All in all, the village was not quite large, and eventually broadly organized. But some details started initially stinging in the eye. Mira did not like the way the women toiled with their sometimes over-exaggerative loads, and how the water was so strenuously dragged far, far from the river. Why was there no well in the village? Where were the carriages? Would it not have been easier to harness one of those strong-looking steeds some Kalevans rode, in front of a good cart? She tiptoed to a flock of girls who were labored with several large bails. Those must have weighed at least ten kilos each. With her handy communicator, she started a conversation. "Wouldn't it be easier if you'd use a barrow of some kind to pull your load?"

Whispers. They did the work just how they had used to do. What was that Visitor suggesting?

"I mean… you girls could use a barrow. Put one of your steeds in front of it, and it drags your buckets." More whispers came from the girls' side. They were shy to answer to that strange-looking creature. Buzz came following the Princess, scratching his head. Some kind of candle had been lit in his synapses.

"Do these guys know such thing as _wheel?" he abruptly inquired. "I can't see actually those things anywhere."_

Mira's eyes widened. The Captain was right. What reason was there to use a carriage, if there were no _wheels available? Another questioning with the translator revealed the cold truth._

_"Pyoerae? Pyoeriae? Ei, pyoerae. Haen tarkoittaa pyoeraeae!" the teens kept a palaver together. It seemed that in their language was a meaning, an abstraction for 'wheel', but no technical solution for it. Or maybe there had been, and it had been forgotten during the millennia._

"Could it be that these people don't know how to use a wheel?" Lightyear pursed. "Blast, we're definitely far away from home."

"I don't know… they seem to be artistically a developed civilization, but maybe they lack some things we keep as matters-of-facts. Have you ever read about such place as Tellus, Buzz?"

"Uh-huh."

"I read somewhere that there was a race called Incas once. They were high in rank with art handicraft, architecture and even mathematics, but they didn't know the concept of wheel."

"Hmh", the male nodded. He had heard about those. "But what's hindering us to teach them how to use a wheel? Craters, at least we'd have something to do here than just the wandering."

"Great idea! So we could help the whole village, if possible!" she cheered. "What if I go to ask about the well thing –since it would be a lot easier way to get water- and you invent the wheel?" 

In a few hours half of the residents were goggling at Buzz and Mira's work on the different sides of the settlement. With Booster's laser, the man had in a breeze made some kind of demonstration issue of a wheel, and manufactured small wheelbarrows by cutting a small tree to pieces, and nailing the parts together. The blacksmiths and carpenters left all their workshops to see, what the bustle was about. They turned around and measured with their eyes Lightyear's composition. Sudden bees of inspiration stung them, making them dash to their shops and imitate what this short man from the sky had done. Fast learners they were, as something was at first taught them. And Buzz could bask sleekly. If he yesterday was not praised, today he had become a careerist.

And what came to Nova, she was teeming with the well operation. The chief announced that it had been deliberated years ago, but with no results. A proper water vain had not been discovered, and so the river was the only source for this vital liquid. However, as certain parts of her wrist communicator worked, it was not quite much of an effort to localize a pouring bilge spring. Yet, it was quite deep in the soil, so a lot of digging would have to be done. But as the sandy ground was not yet fully frozen, it maybe could be delved. And the Jo-Adian's laser would of course help with harder stone.

The late afternoon's hot sun made Buzz' back sweat. He had been for a while assisting the young men who strived with shovels almost amidst the huts. The excavation had been begun, since an ideal place for a common pit was cottoned on. The crowds had piecemeal scattered to their own apis, so that the gawpers were not so many any more. Either some young women came there to bring food and drink to their husbands, or teens came to titter there for other reasons. Especially their shy smiles and blushing cheeks were directed to Buzz, who occasionally turned his crimson red face away from them. _Those kinds of stares made him flush all over. Especially the giggles made him turn red, when he was forced to throw his shirt away due to the blazing heat. A genial waft came from the river, but it did not much cool down the perspiring in the hard physical work._

In front of him, on a small fence, were sitting those chirping teens. As he shifted his eyes there the next time, an older, taller figure had appeared there among the girls. It had fresh hunt hanging from its backpack, and it kept whispering something with the younger ones. 

"Isn't that the one we met yesterday in the forest?" Buzz thought en passant. It had to be she. Now what was _it whispering with the teasers? Wasn't she a bit too old for that? Some kind of other reflexions sneaked in his mind, too. After all, he believed he could have very well beaten up yesterday's beasts without her. She had just reached there before him, was it so? It was a bit of a vinegary gulp for him to swallow, that __a woman had saved his life. "I could have done it myself. Buzz Lightyear doesn't need to be saved…" he hummed to himself._

Yoka-hanen at the fence had been watching the show for a few minutes. She had slinked to the edge of the village from the forest. The day's hunt was over, and fresh food would soon be brought under the roof. But the ballyhoo beside Kalervo's large teepee had attached her interest. Yes, it was the funny short man toiling there. From the sky or not, funny in every case. She leaned to the upper bar of the fence, laughing at herself. Didn't the person just shine with his huge alter ego? His overconfidence could be seen miles ahead. That proud pose, the wrinkled brows, the determined expression. She found him rather comical. And what was it with the height? Nearly all the village's men were at least one or two feet taller than this amusing, bearded male. His impossibly wide chest contrasted rather ludicrously with the short legs. Anyhow she did not detest that foreigner, just found him funny. Yoka started keeping her own show up with the teens. Why not to imitate that Mr. Ego a bit? She crumpled her thick brows, puckered up her lips, boasted her pose and took a lonely shovel in her hands. There she was supposedly digging the empty air, pretending to be that over-masculine hero. This made the youngsters howl with laugher, and clap their hands.

The target of the raillery happened to cast his regard back there just when Yoka was in the middle of her silly game. But the effect was the opposite to him. Was that woman mocking him? She did that on purpose? Was she paying him back this way yesterday's tumble? She had seen his 'incompetence', had she?

The chief's daughter from the stage noticed his frown, and sneered back with a wide smirk. Was that man a bit grumpy? Even funnier he looked with that expression. He tried grinning back from his side, but got only some kind of wry smile to hide his little irritation. But soon the woman was gone, had jumped over the fence and vanished towards her lodge. But a nasty taste stayed in his palate. No one would mock Buzz Lightyear!

A couple of days passed. The success of the inventions Team Lightyear with Zarah had made was monumental. The respect among the Kalevans grew, at least as _they had suddenly done so much to aid the simple tasks of life. Carts and other kinds of objects the skyfallen had taught them to use, were manufactured with a breeze in the workshops. The old chief was more than gratified with the Visitors, and would give his own gift to Buzz as the time was mature._

One day Lightyear was invited to a hunting-trip. Its mere purpose was to gather food for the beginning winter, and for the feast that would be later arranged for the honorable Guests. Zarah, Mira and Booster stayed in the village since they had plentiful of enlightening work to do among the natives. But the Captain was almost against his own will dragged with a pack of hunter women and a very few men to the journey, to the meadows of Lemminkainen. He was put to sit on a fast steed. Soon two hours of light galloping over the dry forests and moors were behind. He partly shivered with cold, partly hesitated what to do. He had been obliged to dress some uncanny garments again, and so light that the air felt icy. The translator was miles behind; the language of Kalevans felt more like crazy Martian natter. And if this was not enough, there was still one shadow of discomfort with. That certain ragging female was again present. And hadn't she thrown dozens of chaffing regards towards him? Wasn't that comedy in the village already enough? Now what? More mocking?

Yoka was truly on a certain amused mood. As a skilled hunter, she of course was with, even guiding some of the younger women who were not yet capable enough. She was curious to see, how that foreigner could tide over an excursion like this. This was not a pique-nique, but would require a lot of carefulness and heed. The shoot was clustered under some small willows, at the edge of a large field where tens of hairy, heavy beasts grazed. Those would be tried to slay as much as possible. The winter's supplies of food would quite a lot depend on the booty. Of course, other hunting trips would be made here still this autumn. But if today would be successful, fewer dangers were needed. Namely, it was not very riskless to go after those buffalo-like creatures, _jauhajokottajas, just with arrows and lances. Well, those were the most efficient weapons the Kalevans had. They were not militant people, but concentrated on peaceful living among the other tribes. It was not even made legends about wars among the natives. There was space and food enough on this planet for everyone, no border conflicts were needed._

However, the actions were suddenly started. A tall woman blew into a horn, letting a hollow sound ring out. The hunters spurred their steeds, and bolted towards the open land. Buzz was for a fraction of time a bit dizzy, but gathered his brains together, starting to follow the lead. The arrows already whizzed around him, spears were thrown. The animals got into panic, and a stampede soon beat the soil. The goading cries, whoops, and the bang of the steeds' hooves made a dissonance with the chaos of life and death. Maybe it was cruel to slaughter animals like this, but how would the families feed their children? A tradition beyond centuries did not fade, but was gone through every year with the course of sun and moons.

Somehow Buzz and this target of his pooh-poohing, Yoka-hanen, had ended up chasing two beasts barging to the same direction. They were harmed already by several arrows, but still kept running with their last forces. Yoka speeded up her steed. The second jauhajokottaja galloped right beside her, in a furious panic. She glanced over her shoulder, and behind her Buzz careered with a stern face. Giggling she decided to play with that proud foreigner a bit. The girl knew it was expressly stupid and careless to do what she had in mind, but could not resist the bantering. She wanted to see, if Buzz would get along in the game.

She led the steed right towards the flank of the hairy beast. Rising up to stand on its back, she took a leap in the air.

"Ayayayayayyyyyyyaaaaah!" A somersault, and she ended up balancing on that jauhajokottaja's back. With a swing of lasso, the rope was hung around the beast's neck, giving her the perfect bridles. Dangerous, foolish was her teasing, but caused in Lightyear right ahead the reaction she had wanted.

The Captain jealously frowned at her from the saddle of his riding animal. What did that girl think she was? Why did she wink to him like that, then laughing rallied something in that Gibberish? This truly knocked his pride. It was enough that she had put the bears down alone, she did not have to show off any more. "I can do that, and a lot better." He knit a plan. "Haven't I ridden with Zurg's hornets, rockets, and everything else? What's so special in this tricking? I'll show that stubborn girl she's not better than Buzz Lightyear is!" So the contest had begun. Steering his animal right beside the second, wild-rushing jauhajokottaja, he rose up, bounced, and ended up similarly to stand on the creature. He tried the same rope trick, somehow succeeding. But… oh the pride, oh the need to swank. Buzz had no idea what kind of freaks those brutes could be. Both he and Yoka were riding towards a small pond. She waved him her fingers, grinning widely and sarcastically. This if what irritated him. But abruptly she decided to jump off from the beast's back, setting up a few hip-swing-ups, at next already laughing on the grass. The other women hunters careered from behind her, shooting more arrows towards the booty. And Buzz did not even notice where he was going. Just there and then he decided to watch forwards, observe the road where the manic ox bolted.

"AAAAAAAAAH!" his eyes widened, as the water's edge glimmered right ahead of him. The animal hopped there. Water splashed and spluttered, and he lastly lost his balance. Possibly he would have got crushed under the brute's weight, unless… one teasing girl had led her steed right behind the jauhajokottaja. A rope appeared around Lightyear's body, and he was snatched on the mount. There he lied on his stomach, yelling.

Still the play was not yet over. The second beast was lassoed tight, and would soon die to bleeding. And the partly-tied Buzz struggled to get Yoka's rope away from around his torso. He had achieved a sitting pose, but had his nose pointing at the mount's hind legs. And… she had decided to stop the jogging mare, with a forceful jerk. And so, as he was holding nothing or not supporting himself anyhow, he was thrown right in the pond in a curve.

Loud giggles and laughters hurt his ears, as Buzz spat the muddy water out of his mouth. The pond was not deep, but even mirier. He supported himself with his arms. When he opened his eyes, he saw a flock of those tall Amazons surrounding him, and initially howling with laughter.

"Oh, craters!" he cursed aloud, trying to get up. But he slipped due to the pond's muddy bed. More titters haunting him. He felt completely stupid, offended, and his whole dignity was taken away. _And who did offer him a hand to heave him up?  Was not that the one who started all this? Yoka-hanen. She, she again! Lightyear scrambled up, throwing a deadly glance towards her. That woman would never, ever tease or insult him any more, if it would be in his hands to order it. But she only grinned at him with a wide smirk, humming something less pleasing in Sivakka._

Wet, cold, tired Buzz was, as he huffing and puffing jogged back to his teepee. The hunting was over, and plentiful of quarry had been got. Twelve fat jauhajokottajas one by one were dragged to the village with the new wheel-added carriages, by some young men. Tomorrow would begin the celebration, a grand feast for the visitors!

But Lightyear went to sulk on his mattress. Women. Always teasing and chaffing men, was it so? And particularly _this one. He did not need saving, he was Buzz Lightyear. The bears he could still stand somehow, but this went over his haughtiness. He could have even __tamed that blasted hair carpet, if he had been given a bit more time. Such, partly resentful thoughts spun around his mind. But… how about his team members? Mira was a woman. Well… he had had quite a lot of problems to accept her doings. He recalled the times, when Warp had eventually turned to the dark side, to serve Zurg as Agent Z. Alpha One's hijacking, Mira's inflexibility… well, by time he had used to it. But this was a different case. That Yucca-hana… or whatever, seemingly enjoyed seeing him in dilemma, was it so? "Hmph! That's it. Stuck up here, and I'm even losing my eminence? Hmm… or maybe I'm exaggerating. But it just doesn't quite feel like that."_


	5. Celebrations

Zarah sat alone in Mira's tent. A big mess conquered the floor. Pieces of scrap metal were everywhere, and forehead sweating she twisted something with a hard screwdriver. The insensible XR was a gloomy sight. From a brave -yet ludicrous and more than often annoying- space ranger, he had turned just to cold, dead metal. Team Lightyear was not intact without him, and that could be smelled already. Maybe Buzz would have not been caught in such stress, if the squad's comic relief had been present. But the android's sarcastic jokes would not be heard in a long time, still…

The tools, with which Choi had started the repairs, were completely erroneous. The hull parts could be molten together somehow, but the circuits, the circuits… A culture that was lacking even the wheel could not provide means for this kind of problem. Possibly the hardware defections would need computer-based correction simulations, not to mention that nanotubes could not be battered with a hammer. Wiping her brow, she felt so frustrated. It was like going back in time… who would need an expert of digital design in the Iron Age? Or a computer programmer in the Stone Age? As futile were her skills here. Used to work with half-automatic implements and microscope goggles… and now with anvil and furnace? She was horrified thinking that everyone would rely on her that the robot would be fixed fast. Most possibly Zarah would let them down.

The tent's flap turned aside, and some light fluttered in. Nova's figure swung in, and G'Deneb turned her head away. Would she show her distress openly, or just hide it inside her as she used to? A repressing character was her flaw, had always been. What would that princess ask her, if nothing? In a group, she was open and could chat almost jovially with her. Nevertheless, in private circumstances, there was lump in her throat, with whomever she then would be communicating. There was merely one person in this galaxy, with which Zarah was the most sincere. Warp.

"How's the work going? I think you'd need some sunlight", Mira commented.

"Hmm…"

"Oh, by the way, Buzz asked to hurry up with it."

Last drop. Asked her to do what? Hurry up? Did someone think she'd survive this complex task overnight? Zarah felt her eyes stinging. Most hating to be a disappointment to someone, she suppressed.

"What's wrong?" That forced mien did not cheat the Tangean. She sat at the work floor, looking down at the shorter woman.

Shriveling Choi slammed the greasy screwdriver-like metal hunk onto the floor. A little, teary tantrum fought inside her, but there was self-control enough left to hinder it partly. "I… I can't do this! I can't do this so fast. Now look, with what they put me working! I don't want to fail anyone, but I just can't fix XR today, or tomorrow, or even this week! I don't even know where to start yet!"

Mira sighed. Hopingly Buzz' arrogant annoyance had not infected Mrs. Darkmatter, too. But this seemed to be the opposite, though. His overestimating wishes caused dilemma. An quasi-perfectionist wanted everyone else to be as perfect around him? "I know, I know. Never mind what I just said. If you can't, then you can't. Buzz can't urge you to do anything you can't. But… I still think you'd need a promenade." She rose up, smiling, "the air is so bright out there, and the village is beautiful. You'll get mummified inside four… uh, one round wall."

"I guess so…" Zarah melancholically put the arm of XR down from her hands. "In here, I'm just with my beginning depression. I don't know if you can understand, but… well… never mind." She gulped her words back. Why would anyone listen to her self-pitying rhapsody about Warp and Ay'noh? No one else missed them but her. No one would understand in any case, she thought. "Maybe, maybe so… Alright, I guess a walk does good. Let's go."

Outside, in the sunlight, another world expanded towards the zenith. The playing children came screaming and running towards them, to see Sininen and her peculiar companion. Some of them with wide smiles measured themselves with Zarah. _Kalvakka (so Choi was called in Kaleva) was shorter than some of them. The women walked past Louhi's teepee. In front of it, on the yard, Booster alike played with kids. They used his back as a slide; he carried them in piggyback, and played catch with him. Seemingly the Jo-Adian enjoyed with his whole heart being here, among these earth-near people. He came from an agricultural planet, so there was possibly not that much difference. The soil was bound in the deepest inners, and its touch hovered in the air here stronger than anywhere._

"These people live here so peacefully, without knowing to care about intergalactic political fights or outer foes… it's strange that this kind of bird's nest still exists in the middle off all the galactic integration…" Mira wondered. The females had slowly advanced towards the blissful river bend. The bulrushes stood as brown sticks ahead, the icy water embracing them with its white foam-crested waves. Russet leaves fell down from the trees, drifting away along the stream as fragile tiny boats. Some maidens that yet had not accustomed to the well, filled their buckets at a pool.

Bird's nest… like Xaneda. It was an oddity in the Alliance, too. Yet, Zarah did try to set aside the gloomy illusions that again rose up from her broken heart. Mira noticed her broody expression, and stood quiet for a while.

"Mira? Mrs. Darkmatter?" a man's voice came in the rear. Buzz trotted forth from the bulrush jungle, hands in pockets. From his face could be seen that he did not share the best mood under the sun. True, he had been ventilating his head after the hunting trip. Yet, the animosity did not seem to leave him alone.

"Shouldn't you be fixing XR, Mrs. Darkmatter?" he quite impolitely snapped. And she felt guilt, bowing her head, tiptoeing away. Nova was to shout something after her, but faced Buzz' iron stare.

"I thought she had repaired the robot already? If her work is undone, why is she here? Our goal is to get away from this place, not to idle here!"

She put her hands on hips. Zarah was depressed, why to push her around like that? Earnestly she met his cold eyes, "Buzz, she said she can't do it."

"What do you mean she can't? If she can't, why didn't she say it herself?"

"You don't seem to understand. Buzz, please try to be less arrogant. This is not the first time I'm making notice about your stressed-up behavior during this trip. Zarah is not well, I can see that from her appearance clearly. She's down in the mouth, and said to me she can't fix XR that fast as you require. Try to be a bit more kindly with her."

"What?" he nearly shouted, "Blast, I am kindly, patient! But XR may be our last hope to get off here! I…"

"I know, I know, you have a galaxy to defend! Don't you think I would like to get home? Or Zarah, or Booster? But if we just can't, then we can't. What's the idea to worry so much? The situation won't go better even if you'd rip your suit!"

"Fine, fine." Lightyear shrugged upset, and left the beach. Too many setbacks for one day. He needed sleep. 

----

The next day opened after the varying sleep hours. For some, the slumber had been a benediction, and for some… insomnia, longing, or grouching. Outside the huts, the Kalevans bustled perkily as little ants. Today was a diurnal for the grand celebration. The cauldrons steamed, the ovens toasted, delicious scents fluttered everywhere. Feast foods had been prepared already several days. The meat was let hung; the blood was well sapped out of it. Already at the weakest dawn, the large common square was teeming with slender figures. Giant gridirons were set up, decorations were hung up here and there. The best suits and jewels were unfolded from the pelt packages, and put on. Women in wavy dresses, heavy kerchiefs skimming the ground, brought their baked goods onto the loaded tables. They were set in the very middle of the open place. The _viisaat had observed the clouds, the orange afterglow last night, and made a weather report. No rain or billow would fight together with the sun today. Neither would when the yellow star would set its rays below the horizon. The stellars would twinkle as cold diamonds against the blue velvet, as the night would descend. A glorious day for jubilee, to finally welcome the strangers to Kaleva._

Buzz was the center of attention already during the breakfast. A few of _suuremo Vellamo's descendants came to wake him up, bringing him a bountiful repast. That and the festive atmosphere made his bitterness ebb gradually. Later he was collected for his preparations, as well as Mira, Zarah, and Booster. Suits were made for all of them, from the finest textiles and the softest leather. The blacksmith Ilmarinen with his sons had put his skills on trial to smith for the Visitors colorful metal belts, headdresses and other tinsel. Kaleva had received gifts already from Team Lightyear, now it was its turn to laud in turn._

Before the gloaming, Buzz and his companion were dressed up to their ceremonial attires. Lightyear felt as strange as before the hunting trip, as young women set him large ornaments on. Wide shining-blue bracelets, armlets, a complex necklace with pendants… over his brows he received a crown-like tiara with blue plumes and pictographic engravings in it. An eagle flew together with a crescent moon, and jauhajokottajas grazed on the field. This inscription did not much please him, but maybe it was this people's one common subject of art. As he was there standing luxuriously like some jewel store window, he did feel his pride growing. Although he was lost, he was respected even in the worlds he did not know. Although… did everyone respect him, or just wanted to make him look like a fool? Like that chief's daughter… a nasty taste came up to his mouth as a remembrance from yesterday. Jauhajokottajas and Yoka-hanen. Hopingly he would not need to see those two in a while. And glad he was that she had not been as his 'mocker' today.

With his soft leather shirt, fringed west, wide belt gathered up from glowing stones and glossy metal, dye-patterned suede trousers, and with all the other trinkets, he felt like a prince. Well, a real prince he had once already been, but this was even more splendid. This was not gaining dark glory as a Zurgean lord, but being esteemed because of his virtuous deeds. Or so he had the impression. Maybe this evening would be the most fantastic summit of his life, who knew.

As his preparations were completed, he was escorted by a large, elating crowd to the village's open square. There were the rest of the Visitors, too, dressed as curiously as he. Mira seemed to adore already the embellished linen gowns, whereas Zarah had no problems to deal with hefty frocks at all. If in Xaneda she was put to wear metal corsets, thick velvet and long veils, there was no nagging about heckled flax. Booster looked truly odd in tow trousers, plumes and black napa. The Kalevans could not really decide what he was, a pet or basilic, so they had tossed over him whatever was wallowing in the stocks and corners. A rioting gathering surrounded Lightyear and the others, directing them to their sitting places at a private table. The audience surrounded the ornated stage, which was set up for the noble and mighty. A massive bonfire, crackling, flaming against the tarnishing sky, fulminated astern of everything. The fete could commence, as even the council had finally arrived among the humble. 

Hours went by with eating, and enjoying the musical performances. Some time before the deepest midnight, the wizened chief limped to the estrade. The audience bowed their heads, and quieted down like gags were suddenly put over everyone's mouths. Vainamoinen approvingly looked down at his people, preparing to keep a speech. _Sivakka slid mildly into the foreigners' ears via Mira's communicator._

His presentation wove the events of the last days into a vivid drapery. How the skyfallen had come to bless his village, help them with their extraordinary knowledge and so on. The Kalevans cheered, and the young maidens tuned up a coloratura song cycle. The zithers and cymbals chinked and tinkled, blending to accompany the head's epical tale of ancient Kalevans.  Fields and mainlands migrated in everyone's visions, forming to a picture of a lush river valley. In the mountainside was caved a glorious, splendid metropolis. Suur-Kaleva sparkled in its silvery glory, with rich, prosperous citizens. O the joy of canto that was resounded in the highnesses! O the loaded tables, full of season's ripe goods! O the luster of complex art and science! In the air the Suur-Kalevans flew like eagles, challenging the winds, challenging the clouds. Stars and moons were their friends; with the sky they shared the wisdom. 

But the furious mountain woke up. It blazed with its fiery revenge, belching out its destructive emesis. The grandeur was buried under the lurid, red streams. The mountain's green robes burned, the blue-shiny necklace fumed. Blindly the men and women ran, most of them falling in the arms of Manala, never returning. And those, who escaped the fire's hatred, carried their children away, in the far-away lands. There was no return to Suur-Kaleva. It died down, and as the cycles of moons and stars went forwards, it fell in the sleep of oblivion. No one wandered in the dormant valley any more. The great river Lirilirilori, the sister of Plutinaklutina-Noro, shed its tears alone, now. Only the dippers soared above it, wailing wistfully…

Spellbound Team Lightyear listened to the virtuoso lyric poetry. Vainamoinen's raspy voice rumbled deep from his chest, and it felt that it could melt even the ranges of mountains. A young boy brought him a Kalevan zither, and his sophisticated playing made tears pearling in everyone's eyes. He caressed the instrument with his long fingers, continuing an aria.

The sons and daughters of the forests and grasslands became the Suur-Kalevans. The wisdom died, but a fragment of it stayed, in the memories and traditions of _viisaat. The trout, the bear, the eagle, they lived together with the scions of mountains. The fallen became great hunters, new great heroes were born. Kaleva was found, and from there, roamed away the new generations towards more exuberant lands, to lands where milk and honey poured. But Kaleva stayed, Kaleva stood. As the last reminiscent of the ancient glory, it sat at the fork of Plutinaklutina-Noro and Lirilirilori._

The stars twinkled above the giant balefire, and Vainamoinen's song gradually faded to a hushed hum. The magic yet endured, as the choir of _viisaat pealed with baritone to narrate the last part of the Kalevans' ostentatious epos, Kalavale. But at this moment, the guests discussed timidly with each other, understanding better the history of these Indianlike-humans._

"It seems that a volcano eruption destroyed their bygone civilization, if I got the legend right…" Mira fingered her ribbon's pendants.

"They call it '_Purkaus', that much I've heard about it, already", Zarah added. "The destruction, I mean."_

"_Stars and moons were their friends, with the sky they shared the wisdom… the Tangean droned. "Maybe they really were in contact with other planets and civilizations, like we in the Galactic Alliance. Who knows, who knows. That would really explain the way they treat us."_

But Buzz was not quite much keen on the whole party any more. He kept yawning deep, forcibly keeping himself awake. The feast food, the hard day had made him drowsy. And Vainamoinen's melody was like a lullaby, making his eyelids heavy. "Uhh… whatever. I'd like to go to sleep."

"Hmph… that's for respecting the arts, eh?" Nova sneered.

"Buzz, don't go! This is like a fairy tale!" even Booster objected. "I… I haven't ever heard anything more beautiful than…that, that song!"

"Ummh… excuse me, but I at least have to go to drink something. The food was so spiced that it still burns my throat", Lightyear squinted, and vanished.

"By the way… just came in my mind… anyone seen Vainamoinen's daughter here?" the Princess glanced around.

"No, I haven't seen her", Munchapper shook his head.

"Just wondering… shouldn't she be present in a ceremonial like this?"

Buzz barely had the seconds to slip back to his place. Vainamoinen on the arena called for him to step forth. He had something important to announce. Malcontent the Captain tiptoed in front of the audience. "Why won't this stuff already end? Of course it's nice to be the center of attention, but I'm tired. Craters… a good sleep would refresh…" he muttered in his mind, but tapped beside the chief. Vainamoinen took his hand, and raised it high up towards the shining Milky Way.

"Today will be written a new epos, the legend of Proud Crescent. On the day when the moons _Sammiokuu, __Lapanen, __Pipokuu, __Rasa and __Ilmatar were all five crescent, he arrived. And so may he step today to Kaleva, as a Kalevan, as our brother! Proud Crescent is he, who with the chariots of fire came down from the sky!"_

The audience hurrahed. Lightyear felt smug, but the weariness was to put him sleep while standing. Proud Crescent…? Was that supposed to be his name? It sounded strange.

"And so I will grant him with a gift", Vainamoinen rasped on, "the most valuable gift I, as the village chief could give him."

More cheer.

"Young man", he warmly smiled at him, "You are waited in _suuremo Louhi's family tent. You can go to achieve my pledge any time tonight. And you shall be content."_

Vainamoinen let Buzz to return to his place. Booster came to hug his hero, Lightyear had looked so marvelous under the praises of the hoary leader. However… the celebrated man was everything but perky. He lazily dragged himself forwards, yawning so that birds could have gained a hold in his mouth.

"Uh… guys, I really need to go to bed. You can keep on banqueting if you want."

"But what about your… gift? Aren't you going to go and bring it to your tent?" Booster wondered.

"Nah… not any more today. I don't think the chief will be mad at me if I go tomorrow or some other time to check it out." Tottering he disappeared towards the waterside's birkwood, and soon was lain dormant, blissfully unconscious of everything.

In the shades of Louhi's teepee, in a side chamber, a slender figure sat and waited… and waited… and waited.


	6. The gift

The morning was still cold and hazy, when Buzz felt that he was being hit. And as the stupefied Captain opened his eyes, there were two armed young warriors in his teepee. They were poking him up with the unsharp ends of their lances.

_"Yloes!"___

_"Vainamoinen ei ole tyytyvaeinen kaeytoekseesi!" the soldiers barked to him._

The baffled Buzz could not understand a letter. The name 'Vainamoinen' yet peeked out of the lingo, so it had to touch him somehow. But why so rudely? Had he done something wrong?

"What? What is this all about? Where are you taking me?" the a lot shorter man resisted, when the eight-foot tall males hitched him by his arms, starting forcibly pulling him along with them.

_"Vainamoinen on pettynyt sinuun.__ Sinae et kunnioittanut haenen lahjaansa."_

_"Alas tulla, haen odottaa sinua teltassaan.__ Kalevaa on loukattu."_

"Craters, you could even _try to speak understandably!" he panted, and searched with his regard for help. Mira popped in his mind. Where were she and the assembler? "Eh, listen to me, now… uhm… I need Mira Nova here! Do you understand, M-I-R-A N-O-V-A? Eh… __Sininen!"_

The warriors' dark eyes were shifter to him. _"Sinae haluat Sinisen mukaasi?"_

Simpering he pointed towards her tent, "Sininen, yes, Sininen!"

The other man whistled loudly. From behind a near hut, ran an adolescent boy. _"Kullervo!__ Mene hakemaan Sininen. Ylpeae Kuunsirppi haluaa Sinisen mukaansa."  Instantly, as the child was called with his name, he ran away and brought the half-sleeping Princess with him in a few minutes._

"Buzz? What's going on?" she rubbed her eyes, squinting in the dawn. The Captain was panicky, shedding hurried words.

"I don't know! I was kicked awake, like some criminal! Vainamoinen must be mad at me, or something. I don't know! But I need your help, I can't understand anything what they say!"

"Why would the chief be mad at _you? You were the king of yesterday!" the blue girl followed on Lightyear's heels. He was hauled straight into the council tent, and almost thrown onto the floor. _

"MARRIED?"

_Dead silence._

The tent stood still. Every breath had ceased owing to this shriek. Buzz Lightyear stood stiff in the middle floor, his pose and mien bespeaking the most drastic expressions of stupefaction. Vainamoinen, opposite to him, rose up from his throne. His wizened face did not sing the songs of appeal.

_"Miksi et ole tyytyvaeinen?"__  he rasped._

Mira, standing rather timidly beside Buzz, poked her commanding officer. "Umh… Buzz? He… he asked you what's wrong."

"WRONG? WHAT´S WRONG? EVERYTHING IS WRONG!" Lightyear bellowed like a rusty foghorn.

And Nova's translator did its task, bringing every bite of anger into the chief's ears. His frown and wrinkles deepened. "I gave you the most valuable gift I could grant anyone. So why are you not satisfied? Why did you not go and receive your gift?"

Buzz' inhales had grown rapid. "Gift! Craters, that… A GIFT? That's no _gift, that's…" he raved, nearly bursting._

The Tangean bit her lips. She had to figure out something to explain so that the nasty occasion would be solved somehow. Putting her hand on his anconal, she cursorily gave a sigh, "Buzz, please don't yell. I try to handle this. You… you're not quite yourself. I…"

"OF COURSE I AM MYSELF!"

"Buzz, please stay quiet now!" she barked. "You're only making things worse and insulting the chief. We couldn't be aware of their traditions, or habits. And so they are not aware or ours."

Vainamoinen, surrounded by his council, looked very sulky at the darker end of the teepee. He disliked the whispering of the skyfallen, and as well was becoming bitterer and bitterer because of Lightyear's bluster. But now Sininen had tapped forth, bowing her head in front of him.

"Honourable Vainamoinen, I beg you to forgive Proud Crescent his behavior. This is a very exceptional situation for our people. We… do have somewhat different laws and traditions in the place where we come from. That is, why…" she gulped to clear her dry palate, "…this is… umh… quite an extraordinary kind of _gift regarding him. You must understand, that in our culture, women can… ermh… decide independently if they want to… well, in this case, marry someone."_

"Well that is not what it is here." A raspy answer came back. "And I do not see, why Proud Crescent is disappointed. I prepared everything. If he was a man with no _vaimo, a man with no bride, there should be no reason to dishonor me like this."_

"Your honor, he does not mean to dishonor you. He is just… umh… quite _surprised because of the unique nature of this… gift."_

"And he shall be content with my gift, too, if he wishes to keep his settlement with our village. Otherwise… he and his companion are not welcome here any longer, and will be punished because of depreciating me." The old leader limbed back to his seat, setting his long fingers together to indicate conclusion.

Buzz shook his head in disbelief, almost ripping his beard away. This had to be a bad nightmare. A bad dream that would fade to the golden luster of the morning. But far, far away from that it was. The truth bit him with its sharp fangs.

"But, but…" Buzz took the speech, stuttering beaten, "W-what am I going to do with _her? What if I… what if I had __had someone already? You…"_

"You did not have anyone. If you had had, then the situation would have been different. We do not accept polygamy. One for one, and they become one."

Turning to Nova, Lightyear growled low, "How did they know that I was a bachelor? How did they know I had no _that kind of company?"_

If Mira could have blushed like humans, she would have been bright red instantly. "They… I didn't know the meaning was this! They… came to interview me yesterday morning, and umh… asked everything about your family relations, friends and umh… dates. I swear I didn't know it was going to end like this! I thought it was just for some general purpose."

"Blast, right, _general purpose!" he slapped his forehead, squinting his eyes, "And of course you had to reel off everything about my private life, what?"_

"I didn't know…" she stuttered, feeling his furious burning gaze piercing her.

"Silence!" Vainamoinen's cough broke their quarrel. "You shall take your gift and go. I do not want to hear any more dishonoring in my tent! You should have nothing to complain. I gave you my daughter. She has never been touched by a man; as my progeny she is from a noble family, and even highly educated on our scale. So take her and go, and I will pardon your offense." With his cane, the Kalevan pointed at a female figure standing beside his chair.           

This woman did not really now resemble the strong hunter fighting against beards and lassoing jayhajokottajas. Her veiled head was bowed, even more now after listening to the bawl that had come out of _his mouth.  Not a good start. Definitely not a good start. As her freedom was in any case over for the rest of her life, she would have wanted to hear at least a couple of kinder words. The heavy bridal jewellery and a long orange-blue robe were decorating her furthermore, like last night. The night she was left to wait._

"Alright, alright." Lightyear forcibly collected the remains of his refined manners, bending somewhat down in front of the austere chief. "I apologize my umh… my inconsiderate speech. I wish this could be brought to a uhm… good end. I'll take the gift and go." But on his tongue roamed way much other kinds of expression. If he could have spat his insults against Vainamoinen's face freely, he would have definitely done that.

"Apology accepted."

The village chief urged his daughter to leave the council teepee. Buzz stormed out, Mira and the 'gift' on the trail. Huffing and puffing he stomped to his own hut, not even glancing at who or what came behind him. Only at the flap he noticed the sand crepitating behind him, and took a leer over his shoulder.

"Oh, you", he heaved a half-annoyed sigh. Rising the flap door, he gesticulated to her to go in. "Now I have no idea what I'm going to do with you. Craters… oh craters, what kind of trick they did to me! And of course you didn't even object it, did you?" he darkly asked.

Yoka blinked her eyes. What the drat had that male just said? The tone was not very kind-sounding either. _"Mitae?__ Anteeksi vaan, mutta en tajunnut oravan narskutustakaan tuosta puheesta." _

Blam, and more enigmas. The language barrier was built instantly up as Mira's wrist communicator was not present.

"Oh tetra-craters and their blasts!" Buzz smeared his face with his palm, "And of course you can't even speak understandably. Where did Mira go with her assembler?"

But she was nowhere in sight. After the council tent was left, she had vanished somewhere towards the other side of the settlement. "Crrrraterrrs!" a gurgle came from between his teeth. He rushed inside the tent, colliding with Yoka. She looked merely irresolute, standing at the doorway.

"You… now, uh, don't just stand there, go somewhere! I don't know what I'm supposed to do with you. I need to think, craters, THINK!" pushing her more in, he himself decided to take a hike. Outside the village, in the cool riverbank were some bushes, where he could rage. Think, think, think, he needed to think!

Yoka-hanen sat for a few minutes stoop on a flat bench. The thoughts were shiftless, she was without an idea what to do. Yesterday she had waited, and now she waited again? Waiting… no one had told her what to do. She was… what was she? Proud Crescent's wife. Turned to serve him, to live the rest of her days in this tent? Far, far away from her decision was it all, and she should not protest. Kalevan housewives were supposed to be humble to their owners, and follow their every whim without complaining. Generations and again generations it had happened along the same formula. Maidens were given out to marriages, they did the housework, gave birth to children –preferably boys- and died, sated of the days, if the skies allowed. Well… maybe it would not be that different here than at home, when she still was free as an eagle.

But… a bad taste felt in her mouth. Why had Proud Crescent yelled at her like that? What had he meant with that weird pig Latin? Had she done something wrong? She was not initially appealing against her father's choice… and what could she have done to it? Nothing. Fairly nothing. But what made her displeasing in _his eyes? Yoka did not know his character almost at all, but assumed that she would learn to know him gradually. But it was not supposed to start like this. She revised in her mind the stories her friends had told her about marital issues and traditions. During the years, her childhood chums had been given to men, to warriors, smiths, craftsmen. Most of them had moved to other villages, no more visiting Kaleva. But those, who still lived here as mothers, had prepared her step by step to this. Of course she, as the village chief's daughter, would be spared for someone honorable and noble._

Nevertheless… not like _this it was supposed to go on. His emphasis had been __icy. Vanishing somewhere like a stubborn fox, he had left her alone __again. Yoka-hanen leaned her head to her hands. Not a crackle was heard in the dank teepee. "Does he not like me, or is he just temporally angered? I did not see him as annoying before. He is a bit airheaded, proud, stubborn, and cannot obviously move around in the forests without a bodyguard to save him every other hour, but I did not see him like this before…" Sniffing the air, she winced from her thoughts. It was truly nastily stuffy inside here. Men. They did not care about cleaning, did they? But how could she have understood that Buzz' chores did a droid, back on Capital Planet? The girl rose up, taking a survey around. Hmph. Dirty clothes lied here and there, the tent was like a landfill._

At the flap was piled a large collection of packages. Yesterday night, behind the backs of the celebrating Kalevans, some women had carried her whole fortune here. Obviously Buzz had been so fatigued in the night that he had not even paid attention that there was something extra in his hut. At first, the woman would need to get rid of her bridal attire. Of course it was lustrous and beautiful, but not handy in work. There would be myriads of things to do. She would not start weeping after _him, but undo her property and set herself to live here._

The wedding gown was quickly packed tidily in a pelt, and the glimmering jewels put aside. Yoka hopped into comfortable suede trousers, dressed a long leather shirt on, tying it up with a wide belt. Moccasins on, and snap, hands on work! "Hmm… I need to vent here." She threw the flap completely open, and unfolded the covers of some of the window holes. Although the flue should have ventilated the dankness away, it was not doing its purpose for a reason or another. "Well, a good cross-draught does the job."

She dismounted her packings, made a bed beside a big earthenware, enhanced the kitchen corner, swept the floor, and put everything literally in another order. Tossing Buzz' sweaty jumpsuit and socks into a pail, she noticed there was no water brought in at all. "Let us use the _kaivo that was dug by Proud Crescent. His suits will need good soaking before I will take them down to the river for backwashing." Taking two big buckets in her hands, she traipsed towards the well._

Buzz sat stupefied on a mossy stone, and watched the whitecaps of the stream. The water was black in the dawn, black and cold like his mind. Conspiracy… schemes… what did they have against him? Why had the chief done this to him? Long enough he had loitered in this backwoods, and now this. Impossible. Impossible. And why it had to be _she? From all the women in the village it __had to be __she?_

"Crrrraterrrrssss!" he ripped in turn his beard and hair. "She's not even my type! Craters, I wasn't ready for marriage, or at all for a relationship. Of course Dad had been pestering me from day to day, but I wasn't ready and I AM not ready! Hmh… maybe I wanted to meet someone for a while ago, but the case of the Gate at least brought me back to ground. I have no time for such thing as dating! I am a space ranger, I defend the universe. A lone wolf, who fights evil proudly when the others fail! Star Command is my life, not a marriage."

But on the other hand, he could not annul anything. Vainamoinen had warned him about a punishment, if he would not accept his _gift. Buzz could not afford arguing with him, insults had already left his throat. "She, she's definitely not my type!" his brains spun all kinds of miscellaneous pieces of hatred around and around. "She has insulted __my pride! I'm not supposed to be saved from places! I can do my job alone! I don't need anyone saving me like if I was some helpless baby! And how she, she dared to laugh at me like that, puts me flying into a mudhole, and laughs at my misery!" he recalled the hunting trip, his fists clenching. "Why to try matching me with the worst possible person?" In his furious arrogance, he did not even interest himself to think what __good features she might have. Only there was the darker side. "She's so opinionated, skeptical, self-admiring! And craters, almost half a foot taller than me! What kind of combination is that? __To give me a taller woman than I am! Ggrmhpffrghgrrrrhhhh!" he squinted._

The spirits did not condensate, but his inner fury only grew. The more he thought about the impossible events, the more he was assured, that someone was plotting a conspiracy against him. What, where, why, he did not know. But as the mind is stressed out, nervous and demented, it can build up almost any kind of absurdities. Buzz had been in the dark side, his mind had gone insane already once. He relied too much on himself, thinking that only he was right in this galaxy, and the others were automatically wrong. A misfortunate gene he had inherited from Zurg; egoism and stubbornness in one little package.

Lightyear had no idea, how long he had sulked in the shades of the leafless birches. But his stomach roared, telling that it had not been filled with breakfast. He left the stone, irrationally remembering that someone of _suuremo Vellamo's granddaughters would bring him ready-made delicacies. Of course they would not do their service any longer, since Buzz __had now a private cook. Nonetheless… his jaw dropped, as he achieved his teepee. A thrombi had rampaged there? Everything was out of order, flaps open, all the charming warmth escaped to the morning's chillness!_

"Sweet mother of Venus! What is going on here?" he brawled, frowning at Yoka, who was cooking at the fire. The tent was full of weird, unfamiliar furniture, his own 'important' things put in completely wrong places. Buzz forcibly began dragging one large, decorated earthenware to a different spot. "This is not supposed to be in this corner! And why are all the flaps open? You have let all the warmth out! Craters, what a mess!"

She goggled shiftless at his blustering for a couple of seconds, then gathered her boldness. She had just moved that jug away from the middle floor beside the doorway, because it was badly on the way. Whatever Proud Crescent was, a king or whatever, he would not disorganize anything here! If she made his food, washed his laundry, chopped the firewood, carried the water and hunted the meat, she would at least stipulate where the practical furniture was!

_"Anna sen purkin olla siinae paikassa, mihin sen asetin. Se on tiellae, jos se joekoettaa keskellae lattiaa!" she snapped, and grapped the pot from the other side._

"Leave it alone! It's not going to jut at the entrance! I'll stumble with it!" he pushed it forwards, and she pushed it back. Crumples stayed on both faces, and neither one gave up.

_"Etkoe tajua, ettae taeaellae tarvitaan tilaa! Ylpeae Kuunsirppi voi rauhassa tehdae mitae haentae huvittaa, mutta minun taeytyy pitaeae koti kunnossa!" _

"Blast, could you even speak understandably? What am I supposed to get out of that devolved gibberish?" he roared, not getting the earthenware to glide an inch further. He abruptly loosed his strong hold of the dish, and made Yoka-hanen fall down on the floor with it. She was pushing it hard to his direction, and as there was no counterforce, her own weight and thrust made the whole entity tumble.

"Fine! Keep your stupid pot! Why don't you move to live inside it, if it's so dratted important to you?" he bawled one last time, and stormed out, leaving her alone.

The physically and mentally hurt woman stood up from the floor, shaking dust off her clothes. So… he had _not cooled down. Something nettled in her eyes, the feeling she had not sensed since childhood. __Tears. Both angry and sad, she carried the jug back to its previous place. But what was his problem? She had done definitely nothing wrong against him, moreover trying to appease his early morning's cynical mentality. The roasting fish and root crops on the pan were meant for __him. And this was the thank you for her work, after cleaning up the teepee? Sighing deep, she sat down at the fire. Well, Yoka was used to men's tricky behavior. Her father had all kinds of strange psycholepsies from time to time. Little whims that went over by the time. What if he… just had an __extremely bad day? Maybe it would be different tomorrow, who knew?_

…to be continued…


	7. And dark is my mind

AN: Thanks to EMZ, CaptainBuzzLightyear and Heather for ideas and help. 

Several days passed. Buzz grew more and more arrogant, cooking in his mind only dark sentiments. He rarely visited his teepee during the day's hours, but roamed aimlessly alone in the near forests, or briefly visited his team on the other side of the village. More and more he cursed his days. Why was he trapped on this idiotic planet, and could not find his way home? More and more uncanny were his emotions that kept racking him. Dark, dark, with the hollow howl of the beginning venom…

"They have made a conspiracy against me. This must be a very evil scheme of some new, raising villain! Blast, and so it is! Maybe there was a bomb in my ship, or someone had sabotaged the hyperdrive, so that it directed me into a wrong wormhole and brought me here! And what if that was planned, too? What if I was planned to get trapped on this stupid planet, so that I would not be there when the diabolic unknown menace attacks?" Even now, the mentally disturbed captain hiked in the woods. He circled one single stone, mindlessly banging new misinformation into his head. The stress piled on his shoulders, pushing him down. "My ranger instinct never fails, and it tells me, that horrors are going to happen, if I'm not getting out of here!" Maybe he guessed partly right, if thinking of King Nova's threats, but this time he was construing his feelings absolutely wrong. "That's it! The chief must be in the plot, too. He keeps me here in a sort of an unphysical prison, forcing me to drag that woman after me! They're all against me! Craters!"

Lightyear began thinking the rest of his team. Why were they so comfortably living together with the other villagers, like nothing had happened? Why did they do nothing to help him get out of here?

Buzz was obviously blind to the facts. He did not understand that Mira and Zarah did their best to contact somehow the outer world. The engineer her back sweating repaired the poor android as well as she could with the primitive tools. Because of her wish, Mira had made friends with Ilmarinen. He with knitted brows forced new parts for the broken robot, not even knowing what he should do. The problem was that Zarah could not go alone to him and ask what she wanted. As Vainamoinen had set once his prejudge on her, she stayed as a low servant. Mira, Sininen, was a _suuremo, she could go and ask anything, though._

But, with his biased, frenzy mind the Captain could not behold through the haze. He began feeling that even his squad-mates were against him, somehow. Maybe they were secretly turned to the dark side! They _seemed nice… although that Mira had been repeatedly mentioning him about his odd behavior._

"My behavior is not odd! She is odd, if I'm asked!" he growled, stomping around the rock. "What are you staring at?" he asked the grey, lifeless boulder. What if even it was against him? An agent of evil that was spying him in the form of an innocent stone! He winced a bit to note the absurdity of that suspicion. _That was just a normal piece of nature, nothing more. But completely convinced he could not be of his crew. They were acting __too friendly with the villagers.  _

And why had no one even attempted to find him from Star Command's side? He briefly rememberized how he had once been Zurg's prisoner, and long, long forced to wait for help. But that was completely a different case, was it not? He had asked for a holiday. That had been a cover. No one could have even suspected that he was in a fatal danger, then. But now… he and his team were _evidently missing, evidently gone. What was Commander Nebula doing? Tracking him or… loitering?_

As what came to the girl he was obliged to keep as his roomer… she harrowed his guts more and more. Seeing furthermore only the demerits in her, he possibly could not comprehend how he should take a stand to this person. A tornado kept his teepee in its claws? She had an opinion about everything he did. And always yakked with that strange, devolved claptrap. Whatever he tried saying, she did not seem to understand. Did she do that on purpose? Buzz did not feel himself comfortable in female companion in any case, and even less with someone who he saw as the worst person of the village. Under the extremely mixed feelings, he did not actually hate her. However, neither could he see with his blackened mind the amount of work that Yoka toiled to make his settlement comfortable in the tent. Food, hunts, cleaning, washing… but unfortunately his beginning arrogance considered those more or less teasing. Why was his jumpsuit hanging somewhere wet and cold, when he wanted to put it on to warm his limbs? What was the obsession with venting? Always the hut was cold like the North Pole. The fire, where she fried some strange-tasting noshes, reeked and made him cough. In addition, he did not want to eat those. The foods that Vellamo's family had made him, were a billion times more delicious. And he was not allowed to do his own rations, either. She was shooing him away from the kitchen corner, if he searched for some 'more civilized' eatables. Yes, here was no Cosmic Chili available. No hamburgers, pizzas or Cocky-Cola like on Capital Planet. Well, those all added together formed a tangle that annoyed the living meteors out of him. Little, irksome details that gritted his already sore temperament…    

---Capital Planet---

The time did not exist as the same in the Core of the Alliance. Faster it flew, the days growing cloudier, the grizzled autumn dying for the winter. Commander Nebula and the whole Star Command lied on red-hot coals. The astray hero Captain was not the ultimate reason for this, but… a certain king that had no sense of proportionality. Threats, threats, threats… the Princess shone with her absence. The Tangean heir of throne was more important than some Space Club for low-browed apes. Father Nova huffed and puffed around the base, not willing to listen to Zeb's pleas. What could the old Commander do, but his best under the circumstances that were given?

"I have given you time to find my daughter… this is not one of those silly space games you play here in your club. But as a merciful man I may give you still a change. But the last one it will be… and then, the Galactic Alliance can continue on without my kingdom. I did not join it to sacrifice my daughter to some lower beings." Those impish words haunted Nebula wherever he went. He had directed the King to go to keep his harangues to Madame President. But even if the object of blustering changed, peace could not lay its mild wings over the foaming political life. 

The late November's downy snow fell upon the yellowed, frosted grass. A thin ice layer made the small paved garden path of Warp's autumnal yard slippery. But two pairs of heavy boots did not much care about slipperiness. Even hard winds could keep the owners of them standing erect. The house behind there looked lifeless, as if its spirit had been extinguished. Clouds of sorrow seemed to hang above everything, and even the white, sparkling snowflakes could not brighten up the suffering plains of minds.

"How long has it been?"

"I dunno. I lost my count of days."

"And I had hoped…."

Darkmatter let his daughter slip away from his arms, to patter among the falling white fluff. She let a wee delighted squeal, and ran to explore a leafless bush further there.

"That poor thingie can still take it easy…"

"I never… never thought I would bear such woe about him… I lost myself, I lost him, I found him again, I found myself again… and now I am losing him?" Zurg, walking beside his ex-henchman, kept on cudgeling his brains with atrabilious sentiments. His usual pose had changed to flopping shoulders, and his inner glory seemed to be washed away with the rain of solemn. Fallen down from the thrones, from the palaces, he was essentially just an old man. An old man, whose heart was now punished with anxiety.

"You truly love him now as a father, don't ya? An'… I can pretty well remember the times ya were sendin' me to kill him", Darkmatter frowned at Zora.

"Feelings change… men change… the future clouded is, no one shall see it… As it was, I wanted to rule everything. Enjoy my dark, dark glory, share my destiny with the dark side. But deep, deep somewhere in my subconscious I sometimes thought, what it would have been like if I had chosen another path… left the path of the dark side…" the taller man mumbled, shaking some snow away from his thick, black hair. "And… honestly said…" Warp peeked at Zora sideways, and palpably saw the Emperor wiping the corners of his eyes. "Honestly said… I… I sometimes wanted to k-kill him. But… but… I was the pawn of the dark side! I could not control my doings sometimes at all! I had stupidly chosen to be its servant, and it kept me in its cold hands like some slave. I _was its slave!"_

If someone in this galaxy ever had seen Emperor Zurg shedding tears, he could verifiably notice him doing it now.

This former villain had indeed woven a tight band of father-son-love with his scion. Although he sometimes, and actually not so rarely, tended to scold Buzz and treat him like a five-year-old, he deeply cared for him inside his molten heart. The iron bands of his conscious were unlocked. No more was his deep-buried mildness under six feet of coarse sand, but had been granted with a resurrection. Otherwise he could not ever have developed humanly love towards his young wife. During tens of years, women had meant almost nothing to him, except… except that the souvenir of the departed one had baited him at nights, in days…

However, the sons of men do change, the emotions do change. For Warp, it was falling in love in the most impossible occasion he could have imagined. For Zurg, it was morbidly finding out how very mortal he was, and that the claws of death could grip him any time. Yet, the icy Šeol was present in both cases. Darkmatter's mind had broken after seeing something so fragile being tortured so inhumanly. And the Emperor himself had obviously for the first time in the course his of days tasted lethality.

Now, the bitter reality struck back. Zarah was gone, Buzz was gone. Where, where, where? Alive… or lost for forever?

Zoxedasžeĉ peeked at his wrist communicator timer. The late afternoon was changing to evening. "Darkmatter, I have to go. Smoopsiepoo waits." A sigh followed. "I know… Buzz really does not like her, what is a sheer pity. But she has been a wonderful support for me during these dark, pathetic days of this abyss…" Waving his gloved hand for goodbye, the Emperor vanished behind the pear-tree.     

Warp watched Ay'noh running around the teensy bush for a while. The toddler caught the falling snowflakes with her tongue, then eating them as whatever candy. The polar night made the days dim in this part of Capital Planet. The grey clouds indicated that the sun had passed away beyond the horizon already a long time ago. The red light crystals that were illuminating the garden, had been kindled.

"Alright, lassie, it's time to get in." He went to heave up the girl, who laughingly tried to escape her father's huge appearance. "We're going home tomorrow, yar scary alien daddy has stuff to do in Xaneda."

"Snow!" the wee one squealed.

"Yep-o-yep, I know, snow is cool. But I gotta put ya li'l frolic to sleep."

Darkmatter creaked the French horn open with his scythes and stepped into his living room. The chairs were empty, and not even a squeak reached him from the dozens of halls the immense mansion kept inside itself.

"Zarah… where are you?" the blue man sighed to himself, as he dragged himself up the stairs. Ay'noh, who was carried by his left arm, also caught his silent moan.

"Mom? See Mom too-mowwow?"

"No, Ay'noh. We won't see Mom tomorrow."

"Whewe is Mom?" the girl looked at his glum mien with her innocent green eyes.

"Quasars, I wish I'd know… if she is somewhere or… nowhere." The toddler could not understand this expression with her childish mentality, so she stayed quiet. At the end of the second floor's murky hall, Agent Z kicked ajar a woodcut-decorated, oaken folding door. Behind there, was the Darkmatters' marital bedroom, with dark-red curtains cloaking the paneled walls. With his now bare feet, Warp could feel the almost sinking red carpet rubbing his soles. Beside the giant common bed of him and Zarah, was a little spare one for their daughter. The child usually slumbered in her own diminutive cabin, but now… the latest weeks the master of the house had felt so desolate, that the girl's presence was almost requisite for him to get even some kind of rest from his comfortlessness. Dropping stooped to sit on the edge of the bedstead, he attempted to collect somewhat his synapses together. Tomorrow, Xaneda, work. Work. Mr. P'Osankka from Trade World was sending a new stock of parts for the T-ray surveillance cameras. Stocks, capacitors, nano-flip-flops… His afterthoughts rambled, and his tired regard set itself to lie on the black locks of the wee lass. She was still perching in his lap, initially playing with the platinum buckle of his belt. Her round features brought nothing but images, mementos of Choi in his mind. Those emerald green eyes… just like Zarah's… Warp could hear _her merry laughter in his ears, as if she had been present in the room. Memories… The milk-white skin contrasting with that beryl… __Her warm whisper in his ear… Abruptly the man felt as if an iron claw had twined itself around his neck, ready to choke him. A terillium band was put to strangle his scull broken. Sorrow, memories… Tetanoid shakes began vibrating along his massive thorax, pushing him down, and making him burrow his face into his solitary palm. Burning, salty tears nettled in his eyes, and he could not hinder them trickling down his cheeks._

"Zarah… My tiny poor Za, where are you?" he sputtered through his sobs, smearing his face with his palm. The loads of stress, the barrels of agony on his shoulders had crushed him now in the very meaning of the notion. Brave men do not cry, do they? Or is it moreover bravery _to show the feelings openly? In any case, what came to Darkmatter, he let himself fall in the valley of lacrimation. No sarcasm popped up to brighten his mood, as usually. This time the joke basket had been emptied. Only a word, only a minor word saying that she __was alive somewhere would have turned his tribulation to praises of extreme joy. Yes, the dubiety is often the most horrible state… whether to live in hope or not._

With a wondering stare, Ay'noh watched at the tearful daddy for a while. A petty whine began reaching from her mouth, too, and she grapped his arm, nuzzling towards him. In a few seconds, she was whimpering even louder than the male, wetting his sleeve with her tears. In her naïve world, she felt unsafe, defenseless, sad. Why was Daddy like that? Why didn't he any more play with her? Where was Mommy?  In the solemn cabinet they both writhed, until the day died away and the tapestries of sleep were drawn over the view.

The next evening on Xaneda was as inconsolable. The day's work was over, and much had the stock unloading not set the bleak thoughts aside. The hours under the ground felt even more desolate than in the Grand Mansion. The delicious supper Warp had steaming attractively in front of him on a table, felt sickening. Oh, how many times he had enjoyed tidbits at this same table… how he had held _her on his knees, fed her playfully with confections or grapes… and carried her then to his chambers, to show her his love. Darkmatter's heart felt so hollow, so apathetic. The seals of his union were broken, the second half of him had been ripped away._

Not even the drink tasted. The chef had brought him good brandy, but his throat signaled it to be like dishwater. Death. Death… more and more that morbid word had spun in his mind. What if she… what if she was dead? No… no… that could not be possible. So cruel the heavens could not be to him. The one who he had saved from torture, from yetis, she… she had to be alive, somewhere. Although lost, but alive.

With one swipe, Darkmatter threw the dishes off the table. Shattering to tens of pieces, their tinkle was left to echo for a long time in his subconscious. The sturdy man collapsed to lie half on the table. Memories… they would not leave him alone. Her laughter… her kiss on his cheek… her white tiny hand squeezing his one… _an illusion. In an illusion she was with him._

_A knock on the door._

He sullenly slumbered up to open the exit. Mrs. Adlene, the mid-aged stout woman from the lower levels had brought Ay'noh back from the nursery she kept.

"Mr. Darkmatter? Are you all right?" she worriedly asked, passing the toddler to his shelter.

"I… I don't know." He shook his head, thanking her for taking good care of the wee one. Solicitously she left him, yet not fully understanding why that high-ranking community member was so funereal. Well, she did not know about Zarah.

Darkmatter slowly limped to his bedroom. Ay'noh had had an exciting day with the other Xanedian tots, so she had serenely fallen asleep in his arms.

"You're blessed with the gift of slumber…" he sadly muttered to himself, smoothing her fluffy hair with his big hand.

Dream. Eternal dream. Death… _death. Nauseous association welled out in his imagination again. "Will you stay as my only memory of her?" he asked the puffing child. "My sweet little Zarah… No, you can't be dead."   _

Across the stars, beyond the solar systems, _she was also awake, thinking of __him. Days faded away with the course of sun and moons. Hands numb of cold, she still repaired the broken robot with the backward tools. XR was the last hope, the last possibility to contact the outer world, if he could function at least partly. But his circuits stood timid, the cold metal parts only shimmering faintly in the firelight. If the android had had happened to be some kind of old sewing machine, it would have been quite simple to put him in shape. But nanotechnology required also relevant repairing instruments. No one could fix a little flip-flop with a hammer._

Zarah blew into her cold hands, rubbing them together. The pelt around her shoulders did not help her fingers from turning stiff. The crank kept dropping from her hold, and the fire was definitely not enough illumination for spit-and-polish work.

"I guess this is enough for today…" she sighed in her mind, and watched across the tent floor. Under a decorated tapestry, Mira had fallen asleep ages ago. Choi added some logs in the smoldering fire, and threw herself on her back on the mattress. 

The sorrow returned. Familiar names, places and faces spun around her head. When had she lastly heard _his deep, soothing voice whispering gently in her ear? Or __her jingle laughter, felt her tiny hands reaching her cheeks? Warp, Ay'noh… what were they doing? Had they everything all right somewhere behind the asteroid fields?  Zarah convulsively squeezed her cushion against her bodice as if it had been something sentient. But… a pile of hair, linen and wool could not sense or be aware. It could not embrace her back, it could not dry the tears of her crying heart._

Night… The wind howled outside. It narked the wooden framework of the teepee. Mira lazily opened her eyelids, getting the vision soon used to the dimness.

"Zarah? You're still awake?"

" Yeah…" Choi's voice stirred. Nova scrambled up, and came to sit at her bedstead.

"Can't get sleep…? You're… missing _them, aren't you?"_

"Hmmh…" 

"I know, it must be terrible… if I'd be a mother, I'd…" Nova illustrated something in her mind. But the human redhead did not want to sink into self-pity, and shifted the topic. Technobabble eloined her bale at least partly.

"I've been trying to fix XR here. Dunno…  half of him is gathered up, but he's mostly still with no function."

"Have you figured out what's the problem?"

"Yeah, I know it perfectly, but can barely do anything in circumstances like this. He's out of power, and would need a good voltage pulse to recharge some of his circuits. But where can you get electricity here?"

The Princess played with a lock of her hair. "But couldn't you put something up with your engineering skills?"

Choi left a sarcastic chuckle. "I'm just a human, just a poor human. A girl with no proper tools to put up a power plant. Sure I could do some tricks with conductive chemicals and metals, but there's no enough voltage. A good, old-fashioned plug box would help a lot. Drat, here's no use for skills relying on nanotechnology and bioscience. Unless I'd decide to be Benjamin Franklin with a kite."

Mira stayed speechless. No road home was in sight.

---------

A little grub dressed to purple and Burgundy red tuxedo pattered inside a half-lit room. He was carrying a tray high up in the air, and a tiny butler's linen was hanging from his arm. Entering, the wee beetle winced. A horrible bluster and roar was to burst his ears. But this was not the certain izzard-admirer having a tantrum, but an action movie rumbling in the holo-telly. _"Ziuung!__ Swiish! I can hear it coming! Swuush! Look out, he's got an ion blaster! Zoinks! Zuuf! The emergency hatch, come on!"  Opposite to the multimedia corner, Zurg sat in a sinking violet armchair, his poise stoop. He was watching elsewhere than towards the television, his gaze distant, hypnotized. The world seemed to have lost its existence around him._

"Uh… my evil Empr… uh, my ex-evil Emperor, your ultimately glorious Imperial Bunzel muffin is here with a cup of evilly spiced… umh… _sweetly and lovely spiced tea!" the insect wheezed and offered him a plate. He had some trouble to arrange his words, because the master was not in the dark side any more, and did not want to be called 'evil' either._

Zora startled. The brawl of the b-class movie turkey filled his ears like a sudden thunderstorm, as the reality awakened around him. Pushing the remote control, he put an end to the hullabaloo in a nanosecond. But he truly did not seem to be himself. The grub could perceive the wrinkles on his face being deeper than ever. His pallid skin contrasted nastily with the blue shades under his tired eyes. The piercing stare had vanished, elbowed out by tiredness. The old man looked back at the minion and the muffin, sighing,

"No. Although the taste is splendid, caressing my sore taste buds with its exotic brilliancy, I shall leave it this time. I am not hungry. You can have it if you want."

"Whee!" the grub bolted away, enthusiastically disappearing in some nook to eat his treat. 

Now the room shone with its silence. Its lodger flopped down to loll in the chair like some abandoned flour sack. The imperial pose was gone, worries were squeezing his heart.

"Is this the final price I smart for my evilness?" he asked himself. His son's shadow felt so eternal, discolored… dead. Was he dead? His thoughts were exactly similar to Warp's ones, yet the relative was a different one.

Zurg imagined himself being back on Planet Z, in the dark throne room. Sometimes, in the very lone moments, his subconscious even there had fished out pictures of Buzz. Yet, as initially being a reformed man, the situation was completely different. But back then… back in the days of the Empire, he did not know such thing as love. He was deceased to goodness, his blood and flesh was his worst enemy. An enemy that had to be destroyed with any means… or turned to serve him. Every plan Zora gobbled to please the dark side, was foiled. By him, by the one he had wanted to finish off so many times, the one he deeply loved now as an old father.

"How, why did I do this to myself?" He let a finger slide along his cheek. He could feel the grooves the black years had brought him. What would his life have been, if he never had listened to the commands and propaganda of Emperor Zidár? Would he have made a difference? Perhaps not. The malice had sucked him in, arresting his mind in the quods… in the prison of hellish agony. But… he _could have done it otherwise. Years, years, again years he could have shared with the light, watching __him grow, feeling pride as a virtuous man. Yet, where was that imaginary life? Wasted, fretted, tossed away… and then a mid-aged man was kicked out of nowhere. Fifty-three minus twenty-six… that made almost half of his existence._

"I wanted to kill him… how could you have done this to yourself, Zoxedasžeĉ Zora Lightyear? Where was your brilliant supreme intelligence then? Why did you make yourself a living Satan?" From under his thick eyelashes he hazily stared at the holo-TV corner. No one else but he and those butlers were at home. He and his self-accusations… the stars up there showed nothing but emptiness. Where was his son, if alive at all? Would the crushed father spend his last days again in the darkness? Adi-Gaia was gone, and now the only thing she had ever given to him? Zora still in his conscience remembered the deceased frail being with gentle… although he was re-married. But some mementos never blanch, neither this one. Nevertheless, was it meant to be that Buzz would be gone for aeons? It could not be true. Or… how would he know the course of the galaxy? In no wise.         

…to be continued…


	8. Cold, cold is his heart

In the shades of Kaleva, the moon phases changed, the sun awoke and died, the daylight turned shorter. Two weeks Buzz had been 'married'. And… no steps to better directions had been acceded. The stress grew, idiotic presumptions blackened his mind. Only willing to listen to his 'ranger instinct', he was very, very assured about the conspiracy belief. And this unfortunate dispel affected terribly his surroundings.

A cruel, cold man was the Pride of Star Command today. To his team, he was like a dictator. XR was not fixed, and so his anger did not abate. And in a certain other teepee, he caused different kind of dilemma. A saddened wife served him under his insults from day to day.

The sinister problem of Lightyear was that the dark side obviously never had fully let him go. Both Warp and Zurg were reformed and could control themselves, but why not _he? His heart was supposed to be so virtuous again, but the evilness was still insidiously taking over it. Why? Had not tha-grydda healed him at all? Yes, it had… but only temporally. Later on, both the ex-villains had comprehended, that the reformation had to start from the __heart itself. The herb of soundness was just a medicine that could yet very efficiently fade out the insanity, but not fully. The youngest male Lightyear still occasionally needed treatment, doses of this medicament. However, the healing regarding him had actually happened against his own wish, as he after the Isgurdian adventure was put in the LGM laboratory. Yet… his __heart had not caused his amelioration. Thus he stayed predisposed to maliciousness… and this if what possessed the most sly tactics. It used his broken pride and feelings of disappointment to turn the Captain back to follow the dark paths…_

Yoka-hanen, alongside with her half-unknown husband, gradually had changed from a jovial, playful girl to a comfortless plodder. As she was not an imbecile, quite fast she absorbed some words and expression of this different language. Little by little, yet not fully at all, she began _understanding the meaning of those snappy arguments __he barked from day to day. Nothing seemed to be all right for Proud Crescent. Complaints were presented whatever she did. If the food was not eatable, it was thrown out of the tent, the plate working as a Frisbee. If the resentment got the true upper hand of him, even furniture was sometimes knocked over. And after a comprehensive tent-cleaning, the worst hubbub usually began. The wife partially understood that he possibly complained about his things not being in order. But why? Couldn't he see the practical side at all? The kitchen corner was for dishes, pots and such, not for his sweaty socks._

But all in all, maybe Yoka could have stood his misconduct better, if Buzz had had at least _some calmer moments. Well, true was that he had situations when he was not mooing like a cow stung by bee. But it was not quite pleasing regarding her to watch a sulky husband, who isolated himself in his own corner. The tart truth had unfolded its grooves, dripping sulphuric acid on her. Proud Crescent did not like her at all, if not even literally __hated her. And she had thought him to be such an amusing, humoristic person… not a cyclone that gave her no value at all. Her patience concerning him could not grow to immense measures. The weeks had formed a psychological pit already, gnawing her nerves progressively to shreds. _

Yoka could not be aware of his beginning insanity, and all the stupid misconceptions he hatched in his heart. The toiling Kalevan was not a part of any conspiracy, just trying her best to make his feeling better here at his noveau home. She wished he would grant her at least some humanly love, but nothing. Not even a little hug. She slept her nights alone in a separate bed, far away from him. The male had shooed her to the furthest corner of the teepee, so that she would not be _on his way all day long._

Three weeks embraced Yoka-hanen with their cold touch. More and more impossible the situation began to be. Being alone one day, in the tent, the girl had time to think what was the problem that this relationship did not work. Was it because of her? What made her so displeasing for him? Putting fingers erect to count her assumptions, she pondered, "Food? No. He occasionally eats calmly. He does not like the cleaning of places, but that cannot be it." A notion she had never even deemed before, made a click. Her looks? "Does he think I am ugly?" This was somewhat a strange abstraction, but might, might form a causal connection. Gliding her hands along her narrow waist, she understood that the figure itself could not be the reason. Tidiness? No. As somewhat an over-hygienic person, she washed herself sometimes even too often. But… her face? Her hoyden behavior and attires?

"Hmm… what would I need to do to be beautiful for him? And if I would be beautiful, would he start liking me then?" A circle of afterthoughts. "Let us try." She rose up, walking to the near storage space.

Yoka opened up various pelt packets, took small metallic bottles out of bursas, and eventually arranged all the bric-a-brac on the floor. She really had not much before thought about her outer appearance. The maverick of the woods did not frequently need expensive perfumes or complex make-ups. Eventually this girl felt herself more comfortable in trousers than in a heavy long dress. Trailing hems made her feet always tangle; robes were like mobile prisons to wear. She took a hefty hand mirror, made of polished metal, in her hand. Her gray eyes under the black brows goggled back. How would she make herself look pleasurable for him? The thoughts wandered, wavering, thinking what _he might like. What kind of beauty ideal did Proud Crescent's world have? Sininen and Kalvakka looked so different from the women in the village. Their faces were roundish, their noses were like those of children… they were short, fragile, everything was upside down for her. Examining her face, she slid a finger along her high nasal bone. The cheeks in the reflection were not round, but thin, ending up to almost an edged chin. The frames were not ugly, but she admitted that there were more attractive women in the settlement than she. Maybe her cast of features was exotic-esque for those coming from the sky, but here she was the average neighborhood girl._

She ran the finger along her eyebrow. What would she need to do with her facial features? Sadly agreeing with herself, she confessed she could not do a make-up. There were some bottles with earth pigment, rouge and some coal presenting an eyepencil. But what would she do with those? Mess up her visage and look like a clown? No, no, no. With a sigh, she tossed half of the implements back to a large purse. Something else had to be invented. Unbraiding her raven hair, she let the straight locks fall on her shoulders. How did Kalvakka and Sininen have both so long curls? Maybe they did not hunt or do such work as she did, so that their coiffures were not on their way constantly. She turned over the reflector in front of her. An open combing would do well. It softened her figure quite a lot, making her less a tomboy. An oiling with herb balsams made the hair scented, a balmy fragrance would replace the cosmetics. Putting ultimately the haberdashery back, she slid herself into her bridal gown, which was the best suit she owned. The lacing of all the buckles, corset ribbons and clips was a time-consuming work, but maybe worth of it. Maybe he would like her better this way. Then some armbands, necklaces, jewels… femininity stepped out of her. And now… she would wait. Even one warm smile from _him would heal her sore heart to feel delight._

But the illusions shattered into sharp, stabbing splinters, as Buzz stepped in. Yoka tapped to him, offering him smilingly a good plate full of delicacies. A risus indeed had spread on his face, but what kind of smirk? Ironical, sneering, impolite. A nasty laughter fled his throat, as if he had considered her mannequin show as a poor-quality circus performance. The dish was snatched unfriendly from her hands, and instead of him staying with her, Lightyear traipsed out of the teepee. Furthermore impishly laughing, he closed the flap behind him. A teary breath burst out from her lungs. No, it had not worked either, in the middle of all those little endeavors to appease this strange, callous male. Weeks, weeks vanity… How much she had tried, how much attempted to be a good wife. Was it all futile? Why, why had her father given her to this man who did not appreciate her at all? She _was repulsive in his eyes, other conclusion Yoka-hanen could not find for the bitter issue._

Outside, Buzz kept furthermore snorting. "More tricks, what? What did she try to do, draw my attention elsewhere with that masquerade? Trying to make me fascinated about her, so that my ranger instinct would grow hazy, and I could not see the conspiracy any more? Hah! Buzz Lightyear won't be fooled, not with stupid tricks." Unnoticed, he walked ahead, raving everything aloud. Yoka-hanen had not been at all hideous in his view, but he considered all this fancy to be only plotting against him. "Craters! I don't need that woman! I didn't want a wife or anyone harassing me from day to day! Crat… ouch!"

"Buzz, would you look at where you're going?" Mira rubbed her aching forehead. Although she had heard his curses from meters ahead, she had not expected him to collide with her so quickly. The fierce Captain had stomped headlong right from behind a corner, and collided with the Princess.

"Now blast, what are even YOU doing here? Can't I just be alone anywhere? I go to my tent, and there's some idiotic jester presentation waiting for me! And now what? You should be trying to contact Star Command, not wander here!" he brawled mindlessly.

Nova's mien turned to sheer confusion. Buzz was truly falling mentally apart. This kind of scuffle he never had let out of his trap. Well, when he lately had suffered from the shock-caused phrenopathy, he _had been different, with different kinds of lalorrheas. And the senseless rambling just went on. Where was XR? What was that lazy engineer doing? Why no one did nothing? Why this, why that. Why did he have to stand that Yoka-hanen, yada yada, and why his team was doing nothing but loafing?_

"Buzz, listen to me. You're not yourself at all. I haven't ever seen you as nervous and…" Mira uttered. She would not lend an ear to this codswallow.

"Nervous? Nervous? I can be nervous, if I want! I've been jammed on some stupid periphery planet, and the universe out there can be in jeopardy! There is no other Buzz Lightyear defending it but me! You…"

Nova's patience began heavily cracking. In Team Lightyear, she often remained as the background character during the missions, forced to listen to and accept every -even imbecile statement- that came from her commanding officer's side. But initially there was a freedom of speech. This was not Star Command. Although this might have been a failed commute, this kind of occasion was leagues away from the work routines.

"Buzz, would you sometimes put aside your stubbornness? There's a lot of other things to ponder than just your job. I mean, come on. Job, it can't be your whole life! You have not adapted to our new situation at all, it's…"

"NO I HAVEN'T!" Lightyear raved, his spit flying in the air. "I will not accept that I'm trapped somewhere, lost in worlds where I should not be! At the very instant, poised at the edge of the Galaxy, Evil Emperor Zurg may be plotting against the safety of the Alliance…"

The woman had set her hands on his shoulders, and aimed her very concerned regard straight into his insanity-sparkling eyes. "Buzz Lightyear. Evil Emperor Zurg is your father Zoxedasžeĉ Zora Lightyear and has been redeemed years ago. He is not building hyper-death rays to blast Capital Planet into smithereens, but is possibly worriedly waiting for you at home." Shaking lightly her head, she went on, "Can't you now see your own confusion? You're not at all considering things clearly."

"Umm… yeah, Zurg is my Daddy…" for a moment he fingered his cleft absent-mindedly, but then roared again, "But, I'm not confused! Buzz Lightyear is NEVER confused! I have been trained to defend the good, the universe, not trained to sit on my hinterland at some campfire, listening to poppycock about legends and lost cultures! I have to get out of here, while the evilness has yet not had its time to conquer the universe!"

"You're still not thinking clearly, whatever you would then like to do and whatever you're trained to be. You can't just live inside your job description all the time. Wake up, there is other life to think about than just being a space ranger. Have you at all thought about that you might never get back home again? How do you think you'll be a space ranger then, huh? And not just you, but we all! Remember, you're not alone here in trouble, and still we others have tried to cope with the situation. We got Mrs. Darkmatter here, who's missing her mate and child, we got Booster, who's missing his parents. And one ranger is broken. Still we others at least have tried to maintain our calmness. You should think of what your father once said, that you should not give in to the anger or you might turn back to the dark side! You're burning out, Buzz. Can't you see you're burning out?"

Frowning the Captain barked, "ANGER? What does Zurg know about ANGER? Blast, he gets furious every time if he sees something around him that is not purple and decorated with izzards! ANGER! I'll do anything what I want with my anger and I can deal with it." Grating his teeth for a second, he was to hop with his feet together in turbulent furor, "And sure you OTHERS can maybe see this all differently! Your backs haven't been loaded with all kinds of burdens, like mine. Never has been. Can't you understand what they did to me? They forced me to _marry this kid! It's all a scheme against me so that I should stay and gather moss here! It's her fault, it's all what they have planned against me! " Steam was raising from his collars, as he foamed his absolutely gratuitous tirade. In such a point, when a person is irritated to the last drop of wrath, his or her statements do not in the most cases make sense any more. The darts are thrown out with no consideration. The adrenaline boils over, and burns the voice of reason._

And whereas he was fighting with his nerves, the Princess had hearkened enough of this absurd twaddle. "Yes, they gave you a wife. And that was the second topic where I was coming to. Is this how you are treating someone who you should indulge? Alright, I admit I don't like this Yoka-hansa, or what was her name, very much. But you can't blame her for something that is not her fault by any means. She's a bit of stubborn person, and unyielding, but still you can't act like that towards her. Guess have I been watching your commissions lately?" she put a finger to point at his chest, "And what I've seen? I could swear that the Buzz Lightyear I know, has turned back to the dark side. It's like you wouldn't have a heart any more! It's not her fault if the laws of this civilization are like this, it's not under her authority to decide to whom she's given or not given. Craters, if your father was here to see how his son behaves, I'm sure he'd give you a good paternal admonition! Good-bye. I wish you'd think at least half of what I've said to you now." Turning her back at him, she stomped away with fast steps. Her ears were so bothered to audit his firing counterarguments. She would leave him for good.

"Hmph!" the alone-left man snorted and kicked some rocks from his way, "Go! Leave me alone with my problems, fine! You'll be sorry sooner or later, when you realize how right I've been all the time. You can just lounge around in your snug teepees without worry in sight! Go, fine!"

Grating his teeth, and furthermore snarling after the gone Princess, he remembered the plate he still had in his paw. His dinner. "Now what mess am I supposed to eat today?" he sniffed cheesed off the already lukewarm food. Picking up the fork, he ruminated a hunk, twisting his face. It did not taste bad, after all. But… a tiny, unfortunate mishap had 'poisoned' the nosh. As the next bite appeared in his mouth, he coughed, drawing a long, black hair out. Obviously it had accidentally fallen off from among Yoka's locks, as she with the open coiffure had served him the tray. Nevertheless, this was worse than a nuclear accident for the extremely provoked male. Roaring he hopped on the frosted soil.

"She did this on purpose! She did this trick on purpose! Isn't it enough already that she can't cook, but has to mess up even the rest of the food with her dratted hair!" A cold gleam in his eyes, he winded back to the teepee. The flap was ripped violently open, and as the hut's master caught the woman with his eyes, another wrangle was ready.

"You've been doing your tricks enough for today! Craters, you can eat your filth by yourself!" he tossed the dish right on the floor with the nutritive ration. "I'm warning you, no more tricks! I've stood you and your scheming people long enough! It's about the time you to change, for your own sake. Tomorrow I won't be seeing this trash on my plate, is that clear?" he shook a finger in front of her face. Half understanding the insults, she had no opinion to answer. Poor Yoka had not even clue why the food had been rotten in his opinion.

"I'm going to sleep, and so are you." He snarled, tossing the pelts of his bedstead aside. "No more stupidities for today."

Lightyear was snoring in deep slumber, but the maltreated woman could not receive harmony. She shivered with sadness on her own mattress, hugging her knees under the blanket. The day had been horrible. Oh how much she had hoped, wished that this man would start to like her. But no, no, no. Only more the hell grew infernal, as the hours crawled forwards on all fours. Mixed were the feelings, what should she do? Not many days Yoka would psychologically stand this any more. The terrible monster called Proud Crescent was draining the last forces of optimism and bliss out of her. Nothing but yelling, humiliating. Never had she though a marriage to be like this. Wasn't the wife supposed to be something dear for the husband? What had she done wrong, if not wrong at all? And where would she go, if this would not stop? To flee… where? The lonely, whispering conifer forests were beyond there, in the middle of the deep wilderness. Would she run there? Find a secret valley where she would live the rest of her cursed days as a hermit? Burning tears were falling down her cheeks, but she bodily wiped hard them away with the coverlet corner. Yoka-hanen would not cry because of _him!_

But on the other hand, the illusive idea of refuge was impossible. The winter was curdling forth, and in the ice-cold desert she would have no shelter. Building up a proper hut would take a lot of time. Alone, in the depths, she would be an easy tidbit for the beasts. Good hunting skills would not save a sleeping maid. There was only death awaiting. And here… a torment of another kind.

A little star popped in her mind. What if… what if her father would listen to her, if she told him about how Proud Crescent was treating her? Maybe he would help. He had arranged this unbalanced union, maybe he could then also do something in order to end her agony. "I am going to see him tomorrow. I cannot live like this any longer. I am lower than a dog. He hates me, I have seen it now…" she repeated, moving her lips a bit.               

Distress shaded equally the next dawn. The insomniac girl woke up to Buzz' bellows. The keeping of long hours yesterday had made her accidentally sleep over. And of course the breakfast was not served with a golden plate to the emperor, and the fireplace was extinguished. Cumbersomely she dragged herself to do the housework, and listen to his curses. Her fatigued mind blurred her vision, and in some kind of trance, the day approached. Carry water, chop wood, do food, be humble… This was a hell.

The late afternoon had tapped forth. Initially the miserable woman sat alone in the tent. Buzz was gone, and she would have at least one calm moment. But… it would not last quite long, would it? The brute would come back its sharp fangs glimmering. Rubble rained over her, hurting every spot. No, she would need to go to visit her father now, if she wanted any change.

Tears stinging in the girl's eyes she took long, angry steps toward the Council tepee. But would Vainamoinen understand? It was _he, who had given her as a 'gift' away. But maybe, maybe there could be found a solution after all. He couldn't be so heartless towards her, that he would leave his daughter all alone to face this dilemma._

The faint odeur of leather and weakly-burning incense filled her nostrils as she stepped in. Home. That was the smell of home. But not any more, those were faraway dreams she encountered again in her slurred psyche.

"Honorable Vainamoinen", she bowed in front of the old leader, who sat alone in his wooden throne. The _viisaat had seemingly scattered around the village, leaving their head alone._

"What is it, Yoka-hanen?" the answer was at first given softly. But as the primary, almost raving sentences began bursting out from Yoka's side, his expression hardened.

"Why did you give me to this man? He does not respect me at all! I am lower than a slave for him! Why did you do this to me? I thought you… you… at least do love me as an honorable father?" the woman flung her arms in the air after some minutes of futile fight. She should have been reverential and silent in front of this male, but now the formalities were muffled under her teary hollers.

"Stupid child. According to our laws, you have been given to him as a prize, and you should be content with your position! Do you not understand what kind of honor it is, for a woman like you, to be Proud Crescent's wife?" Vainamoinen had stood up, leaning on his cane.

"HONOR? Is it an honor that I am being yelled and treated like a scabby dog? I thought you would understand what I try to tell you, honorable Father! Think, if you were me…" a cuff on the ear stopped her speech. The head stagnated brutishly in front of her, his hand still in the air after the hit.

"Proud Crescent is our exalted guest, a visitor from the skies! How do you dare to talk about him with that kind of manner? If I was younger still, I would punish you with my own hands, but thank your luck that I am not in the strength of my youth any more!"

Inhaling deep, and rapidly, Yoka's eyes grew wide of terror and disbelief. "I… I thought… you… would understand me…" she stuttered, holding a warm palm over her aching cheek. The salty tears tortured her eyes even more, now falling freely along her face.

"Understand? I do not understand such mutinous, stupid talk! You know your place in the society, what you are as a woman. You know the laws, I have been generously teaching you my wisdom and the residues of our once so golden culture. So if I were you, and thank heavens I am not born to be a woman, I would be forever thankful to my superiors for such an honor as being a very dignified person's humble. So be happy in your place, and be grateful to me, that I did not give you to some local craftsman!" the hoary leader's eyes blazed in frenzy. And the regard he received from his scion, was on the other hand full of beginning despair.

"G-G-G-RATEFUL?" was the stammer back.

"YES! GRATEFUL! I have not spared you in vain for this long so that you would end up to be some insignificant warrior's own! Do you understand how much you dishonor your father with your stupid, naïve behavior? I have been patient with you, but this is the last drop!" Vainamoinen's fit of anger had come to the spot that he was shaking his cane in front of the girl's nose. The next hit would come from that, if she would not be sensible enough to get away and fast. Her hazy vision through the watery gaze gave route for backing and escaping the chief's animosity.

"So go to your place and be obedient to him! It is your fault if he treats you badly. Your fault if you cannot please him with your rebellious manners! GO! GO away from dishonoring me!"

And so Yoka-hanen spurted her legs to run. A cry, a cold cry waited for to get free from her throat, but with coughs she forced it to stay inside her burning chest. Legs. Feet. Was she buried in solid concrete? They moved, but in a boghole. Legs, run, run, run… The council teepee was far away behind her, but still she imagined being at the mercy of her father's violations. He did not love her any more, did he? Or were the laws the only issue he cared about? Dignity, respecting, honor, dishonor… was it _her fault after all, the whole state of affairs? That she was bounced around insensibly? Her fault? Maybe it was then… maybe, maybe… Screams, ill words spun around her head. Running blindly forwards, she collided with woman carrying a water pot. Seemingly she fell down on the ground with her dish, but Yoka did not care to stop and see what she had caused. Legs, run… run, run, faraway… Far away from the psychological hell… but where? Where? There was no place for her to go. _

Maybe Vainamoinen did feel pity towards his daughter, after all, although so violently disciplining her. In his heart, he had considered her sniffs, and decided to put some action on the road. From the back-chambers of the council tent, he called for a servant boy.

"Kullervo, the son of Kalervo. Go and call the _viisaat. The Council needs to meet. And, ask Vipunen and Antero to bring Proud Crescent and Sininen in front of me." The adolescent bowed, and ran to fulfill his wishes. The dismayed man sat feebly down, massaging his wrinkled forehead. "Oh the dishonor, oh the dishonor…"_

The flabbergasted Buzz soon stood anteriorly the chief's piercing stare. Mira quite well comprehended what this was all about, but her work was to be an interpreter, not a psychologist. She had attempted to bend the arrogant captain, but could not act like a nanny.

"Proud Crescent. I have heard saddening news about you. I have discussed with my daughter, who has also been acting insulting towards me. But I heard that you have been treating her cruelly. Why, may I ask? I hope she has not done an infamy against you."

Lightyear's muddled brains searched for an answer. _She had been gossiping about __him? As if all the events had not been already enough! The very evilness inside his subconscious took abruptly the upper hand of him. His feelings turned icy, like a blizzard on Antarctica. Oh, how much he wanted to slip lies to defend himself! And into lies his twisted statements blended._

"Honorable Vainamoinen, I have no idea what you are talking about. I haven't _mistreated anyone. And even if I have reprimanded something or someone, isn't it my own thing?"_

Vainamoinen sighed deep. Just now his glory was gone, and in the throne sat only a wizened, crestfallen male. "That is correct… it is your own thing. But did I not ask you once to accept my gift? You are not content with it, are you?"

"I didn't say so, honorable Vainamoinen", he dryly passed by the topic.

"Very well… Proud Crescent. You are allowed to do anything with your property… but I am speaking now as her father, not as the chief. I would definitely not want to hear about this again. Not to see my daughter coming and telling such things about you", the head rasped, his tone turning now very outraged, "If I was not under the laws of Kaleva, I swear I would chop your head off for this! But considering that I am forced to listen to the Council, and considering the deeds you have done for our people, I cannot do that. Yet I would not wish to see any more my daughter coming here and telling that you are a cruel man."

"I understand. This won't happen again", Lightyear bowed, and was allowed to leave.

Out there, the night had fallen, and snowflakes densely flying down. It had whirled frailly half of the day, but by the dusk, the weather was turning more to a whiteout.

And so did Buzz' mind turn shadowy, forecasting an emotional gale. Mira got frightened when she succeeded to see his gaze. His sapphire eyes were cold-blooded, similar to the look he had used to have as Lord Zenith. Maliciousness still lived somewhere deep inside his heart. Not uttering a word to her, Lightyear stomped towards his teepee. Nova was left to wait for the worst.


	9. The wail

Yoka-hanen had just arrived back to Buzz' hut. She had been in the snowy woods for a while, calming down after the shock. Yet she stood on her feet. Maybe her father was right. Maybe she _had really done something wrong, so that she was so displeasing in __his eyes. Three weeks of insulting, shame… Yoka would try. Try once again. Try to be a good wife. But the pain did not cease. Her cheek prickled still after the hit, bringing the tears almost bodily back. She wiped them away again and again, because in front of __him, she would not cry. Whatever it was, she would not show that the neck was breaking, her inners shattering gradually._

The tent was however dark and empty when she arrived there. Fire needed to be lit, and some supper made. She set herself back against the flap to foster the igniting flames with some logs. Abruptly a whiz of wind befell, and some snow whirled in. She swung half-scared around, and was left to gawp at the erect, black figure in the doorway. The white background contrasted with the dark enmity the shadow expressed. And as she saw _his expression in the firelight, a frightened yelp left her lips. Proud Crescent. She had never seen a mien that cruel, that outraged on his face. Whole his body articulated something evil._

"Yu… want food?" she offered him diffidently a plate, where she had gathered all kinds of goods. Maybe this would bring him calmer, would it? _Sometimes the serving of food had made the wrinkles fade from his forehead._

"Do you know what you have done, woman?" he hissed from between his lips, jerking the plate from her hand. "As if I hadn't had trouble enough on this stupid planet, you have turned your father against me, is that it?" He tossed the whole dish over his shoulder, so that it cracked to four pieces onto the floor. The force of his voice rose, the sentences coming deep from his lungs. "I have been annoyed long enough in this place, as the victim of some kind of plot. I have tried to bear you, and your devolved people, but this is the last drop._ I am not hearing any squeak out of your mouth any more. You are not going to whine to your father never again, is that correct?"_

Yoka had risen up from the floor, backing as he slowly walked towards her. His devilish expression made her hackles rise up, as well as the voice tone hurt her ears. She understood partly, what he condemned. She had tried… she had tried to calm him, but obviously had made the situation even worse. Her breaths turned to panting, as the cry waited for to wail out of her throat. With efforts she swallowed her distress, but it came back as a bigger lump to hasp her inhales.

Buzz had taken a pot in his hand from a table, some item that belonged to her. _Crunch, it fell onto the floor broken, accompanied by his demonic yell. "I have stood you long enough! I never wanted you under my roof, never wanted anyone pestering me from hour to hour, you hear me you gossip? You took away my pride; you have insulted me enough with your little tricks. I am not supposed to be here, I have my own world where I live, you hear me?" The next items appeared in his hands from the table, her necklaces she had put there for the night. Snap, and he broke off the laces with one jerk. The stones, fangs and other decorations fell onto the floor to escort the broken pot. Then, the whole table was keeled over, the rest of the objects on it getting crushed under its weight._

"I don't need a wife. I don't need you. You're just on my way. But I may be 'friendly' and let you stay, if you nicely stay without a pip in your corner. I don't need your services, I can do my food on my own, I can live on my own. Especially I don't need this trash filling my house!"

Horrified Yoka watched, as more of her property went to pieces. The pelt bundle that was hanging from the wall, met her regard. Somehow his furious hand found even it, ripping it off.

"No, no…" she panted in terror. Not that one. Anything but that!

"What's so important in here for you?" he impishly snorted, and unfolded the packet. She had wrapped her bridal gown in it. But it was not just any random object for her, it was the most valuable thing she ever had owned.

"Oh, oh, your little stupid wedding dress, eh? Well, we don't need this either. You can keep your mattress, and everything else goes out of this house."

"NO!" she at the last moment attempted to hinder him, but the harm was already done. Rip, rip, rip, the soft linen went to shreds. The remains were tossed over his shoulder, regardless of her panic-struck expression.

"I DON'T need a wife, is that correct? Especially not someone who's putting up schemes behind my back, so that I almost lost my head today. So go to your hole and stay there, but don't ever come to speak or insult me again." His smoldering eyes would have burned her, if a sheer regard had had such powers. With a shaking finger he pointed at her mattress, accompanied with curses. "YOU GO THERE NOW! Get away from my sight! I don't want to see you, understood?" Abruptly he turned his back on her, folding his arms over his chest. With a frown, he cynically waited. When he would turn back around, she should be gone.

Yoka watched the mess on the floor. Over half of her property had been broken or destroyed, just in a few minutes. Her big eyes had turned misty, now full of hot tears that could not be blocked, any longer. This was a nightmare, a living hell. How much of a strong and tolerating woman she had been this far, now the last breaking point was achieved. No more could she bear anything, himself nor herself. The teardrops were already falling along her neck, and she fought back not to faint. Air… it was as if it had turned to suffocating coal gas. A long, miserable moan rose up deep from her throat, as the nerves broke down.

Lightyear turned around in a nanosecond. "What are you trying to complain there? I said…" but his insult was cut away as he saw the view. Yoka was waned like a ghost, slowly falling towards the floor on her knees. The wail of misery rose and fell, like a morbid song telling about suffering, eternal blackness. She shredded her hair with her both hands, so that one bundle of it appeared in her fingers, another one getting fast loose too. Tears messing her face, Yoka looked awful.

Snap. Something clicked in Buzz' brains. This was not a show, this was not a play. She was not doing tricks, not performing. That cry, that sorrow was more than real. No one would rend him or her that way, not even in a cunning jest. An appalling coldness filled his heart. A basket of bricks was dropped on his scull. Bang, bang, bang, his heartbeats rhymed with her snivel, until he felt them turning to extrasystolis, arrythmicly rising up to his throat. _What had he done? This sole question crawled up somewhere from his subconscious, together with the little voice of justice he had muffled. What had he done?_

Buzz had never seen anyone shedding tears so furibund, expressing all the possible means of sorrow and anguish at the same time. Like hypnotized, he saw the happenings of the three weeks gliding in front of his eyes. How she was given to him, how he fought about the pot, how he started _insulting her, yelling… everything was repeated to him as a movie, her jeremiad playing the soundtrack. __What had he done? This was far, far away from some stupid conspiracy assumption he had so keenly cultivated under his cranium. The understanding was given, as his conscience woke up from its long, dank dream._

"_What have you done to her?" it roared like a pack of lions, "Is that what you call goodness? Is that what you call freedom, justice, what you believe in? What has she done to you? Nothing! Absolutely nothing! And you have teased her slowly almost to insanity. Why? Because of your stupid, mindless assumptions that have no bottom or base? __The Pride of Star Command…?__ Ha ha ha ha ha ha…" it cackled its ironic, derisive laugh. "How can you call yourself Buzz Lightyear? __The defender of the weak, the cowed…? You have __yourself become a dictator of minds, you paranoiac idiot… goodness, this is goodness, what? With goodness you broke her things? For what? Because she frightened tried to search for support from her father, __against you! This is how you thank her for toiling like a slave because of you? __The Pride of Star Command, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! If Commander Nebula would know about this, he would kick you out on this second!"_

The dark room spun around in his vision. Somehow he distinguished that Yoka was dragging herself towards her mattress, but weakness took over her in the middle. Sniffing and sputtering the woman slumped down in the furthest corner of the tent, beside a large earthenware. Where could have she gone? Out there, would be only the chilly night. At this very moment she regretted her whole life, that she had occurred to born on this planet, to this community, as this person. All her existence, she had been merely just a beast of burden despite her officially high position amongst the society ladies. But in her darkened mind she raved, she stormed her suffocated repressions through the tears. Now Yoka felt most the lack of value and respect she ever had experienced. And her things, her memories were gone. Broken, shattered, lying on the floor with the dust.

And what was that man, the one that had been dropped from the sky with his strange fellows? Why, oh why had she _had to be the one that was given to him as a prize? Was she completely without a human value in everyone's eyes? Was she meant to be the just the house slave of some shrewish stranger? This was what she understood in her fatigued brain cells._

And Buzz… he stood perplexed in the other side of the space, his brows crumpled, his mouth in some kind of twist. But that was not an expression of hatred, no, but uneasiness, shame and embarrassment. His chest felt like if it was filled with tons of granite stones, something gushing his heart with a steel blade. He took a small step forwards, but drew his foot abruptly back. There was no courage left in him, he was so ashamed of his evil words and deeds towards this woman. Of course nothing was her fault. Not her fault he was stuck up on this bizarre planet. And it was definitely not due to her, if the chief had endowed her to him just like their laws had ordered thousands of years. Definitely not her fault.

"Craters, craters, craters, what did you do, why did you have to be such an idiot?" Buzz cursed to himself, biting his lips broken. These were the very first syllables he hackled out of his mouth after the screeches of his conscience. He cast his befogged eyes at the girl who was weeping in the corner and ripping more her hair.

"Me not-heeng! Me-e not-heeng! Yu ha-ate me! Ha-ate…" she screamed, fumbling out some English words she had learned. But the shedding continued with her own language, waning to some unclear mumbling beyond the sobs.

Those lines chopped like an axe Buzz' heart broken. "No… Y-Yoka…" He attempted to gulp out, but got no voice out of his dry throat.

"_Sinae__ vain kiusaat minua, minea olen pelkkaeae saastaa sinulle… yu no ge-ve me __arvoa… yu onl-ee hate, me ug-lee, yu hate…" came another shriek, messed up with her own speech and the foreign talk._

Lightyear slapped his own cheeks hard with his both hands, as if this measure would bring him courage or absolution. The shrill fire-alarm voice of his conscience did not fade away; he would at least have to try to compensate his behavior somehow. Maybe the cheek-slamming did produce some results, since his voice came now clearly out, "Yoka…I… I didn't mean this, I… I'm sorry…"

"Sorr-ee yu no sorr-ee!"

The man forced himself to drag his heavy-feeling feet at the corner where the result of his bellowing was cringing. His legs did not want to follow his brains, yet they _had to come along with the guilt and abashment. Yoka seemed to be very hysteric, or at least what came to her hyperventilating appearance, roars and trembling. She looked like if she had tried to push herself through the tent canvas, while cowering there._

"Look, I'm sorry… I s-should n-never h-have been like this to you… I d-didn't understand… L-look, Yoka, I don't hate you, please d-don't cry…" Buzz had now reached her, squatting down beside the raging maid. He carefully extended his shaking hand towards her, but she was way much quicklier even in such a state and slapped it away from her nearground.

"GO AWE-YY! NO COM-E HAT-EE ME!"

Another scythe-slash splitting Buzz' inners. Near it was that his eyes would be filled with water, too. He definitely did not hate her or want to hurt her. All in all, under his jealousy, he had admired her braveness, her skills to survive in the cruel nature. But at this moment he could not start pondering his emotions. There was only one possible issue to do, to try to apologize her somehow and soothe away the tears. The broken belongings he maybe could not fix, but maybe the tears, maybe the tears…

"P-please… you have to believe me, I didn't mean to upset you, I didn't mean what I said… I was an idiot, a mere idiot, I'm sorry… I'm so sorry I stupidly went on breaking your… b-breaking your things, I…" he extended his hand again towards her, regardless that she had just beaten it off.

"Go awe-yy!" 

"No, I won't go away, I want you to understand that I'm sorry, that I didn't mean what I…"

"Y-yes yu mean, me not-heeng, me hate, me not-heeng…" she snuffled back.

"NO! NO! You have to believe me… you're a _nice girl and I…" At this point, Buzz came nearer, sitting on the floor right in front of her. Inspite of her resisting and fighting back, he grapped her shoulders, drawing her nearer. He did not quite know what he was doing. The sole thing that was spinning around his little scull was that the girl should be calmed down._

"Go awe-yy yu want hurt me what? _Siitae__ vaan, minua et hakkaa, osaan kyllae puolustautua sen verran!" She tried to push away roughly his massive chest with her arms, while he did his best efforts to hold her still._

Another miss for Buzz. Did she now think he wanted to _hurt her physically? No, no, this was going too far. Way too far. What could the captain possibly do for any convince? That would be the last thing he would do to her –or to any woman- in this universe._

"NEVER!" He let a deep bass yelp out of his throat. "I'd never, never hurt you like that, how can you even say a thing like that?"

No clear reply this time. Purely only that tear-messed mumble he could not make a piece of asteroid about. Buzz was furthermore holding her from her shoulders, but this time Yoka-hanen had made her mind to set herself free. She instead gripped his wrists, pushed and pulled, trying to get that tight hold of his off. Tuned up with more lachrymose holloing about how much he hated her and how worthless and disgusting she was in his eyes.

If Buzz Lightyear was a robot, someone might have said he experienced a short-circuit in his brains at this very moment. He stood no more of her back-fighting, no more of that insane yelling. And not those tears that he had caused. With a quick move, he arrested Yoka's hands from her wrists, locking them behind her back with a firm clasp. His other arm he put very tight around her, so that his palm was supporting her head from the occiput. While he nearly flattened the more narrow-shouldered girl against his wide chest, he pressed his lips hard on hers, without thinking any more of his actions. There were only two understandable words whirling around his cranium, "Calm down, calm down, calm down…"

And there he went on with his kissing, no end in sight. However, the woman had gradually stopped her resisting, now just sitting stiff and perplexed in his stormy embrace, her big eyes wide open. Suddenly no sound from her side could be uttered nor produced, only the silent dilemma and confusion were present. This was the last thing she would ever have expected from his side, and in this situation neither one could perceive what was going on. Only that Buzz was completely concentrated on kissing and holding her, lowering her all the time a bit more down to let her rest fully in his enfold.

When the man ultimately decided to stop kissing her mouth and turned his lips to caress her cheeks, Yoka coughed, and inhaled rapidly in order to get some air. And Buzz… although something inside him banged him to stop, he could not quite finish what he had started. Some odd fire had abruptly blazed up in him. He did not comprehend what it was. Maybe it was the presence of the girl, the need to soothe away the rage and tears, it could have been anything mixed up with the happenings of the night. He ran his fingers trough her hair, gluing his lips again on hers.

But what Buzz did not clearly sense, was that Yoka-hanen was barely having the courage to breathe. Angst lived in her heart, sudden fear towards the man that had pinned her in his hold like this. However… because his odd 'attack' was like _this, it in a way made her even more frightened. _

Then came the moment when Lightyear recalled that time existed too. He had no information of how long he had kept the fighting counterpart on his knees like this. Little by little, the normal world opened up in his view again, thus making him loose his hold on her. His bewildered blue eyes encountered her grey ones, which were at least as abashed. The girl was staring at him her mouth open, her face swollen because of the crying. A few minutes went, as they just gaped at each other, neither one making a stir back or forth.

And then Buzz remembered he was still holding her wrists behind her back. Ultimately now releasing his hold, he brought her hands at his chest, beginning to chafe them a bit.

"I… I'm sorry, I…"

No response, only a gawp from her side. One last tear was trickling down her cheek. This was however wiped away with Buzz' thumb.

"Look, I'm so sorry for what I did… and said… I… I think you're n-nice and b-beautiful and you h-have beautiful nightful of hair… umm… hairful of night… umm… night-black I meant to say…" He with shaking fingers opened up her fist, looking sadly at the loose tuft in it. "N-now l-look w-what I made you d-do to y-yourself… I'm sorry I yelled you like that, I didn't mean to go this far… it's not your fault that I'm trapped here, nothing is your fault, I was so stupid I let insulting words out of my mouth… I didn't mean any of them, I'm sorry…" Buzz' sentences came out quickly and stuttering.

Her tumid stare flickered. A headache had begun beating in her temple vessels. Crying and emotional outbursts always brought the war turret to bang her head broken. Her waned face was between Buzz' palms, and he somehow through his delirium saw the collapse. He had driven her to the last breaking point, and the forced comforts would not possibly bring any more help tonight.

"W-would you like…to go to rest?" he stammered, helping her slowly up. The man conducted her to her mattress, in the corner. He pressed an earthen bowl full of cool water in her shaking hands, putting then some pelts over her shoulders.

"T-try t…to rest, j-just rest, I… I'm so sorry…" Biting his already sore lips, he attempted to find fragments of sentences. But also his vision swirled, dizziness crept from his occiput, and made the floor sway. What would help? Cool air? Outside, it was humid and chilly. That would maybe soothe even his beginning headache, would it? And… he needed, he had to get out, and now. The raving conscience he had muffled for too long, hit him with a scimitar every two seconds. Swish, gush, swish… his heart was split, made to bleed. When he stepped out through the flap, Yoka collapsed on her stomach in the bed, almost fainting asleep.

The snowfall was calmer than an hour ago. Or… how much time had it lapsed? Buzz did not know. He aimlessly walked forwards in the blackness, the snowflakes landing on his raven hair. He talked to himself aloud, all the random thoughts that came out now after the shocking, hysteric evening. Someone might have thought him fully gone insane, but actually he was ameliorating through his reflexive monologues.

"I am a man and I was given a woman. A wife. Yes… a wife. Do you understand it now, Buzz, that she's your wife? She didn't choose. Can't you understand what's the law in this place, Buzz? Can you hear yourself? The law says this, and the law says that. But you should have a law inside you, Buzz, your beliefs, your 'goodness'. You cannot call yourself the defender of goodness, if you maltreat someone like that. Why do you believe she and her father were a part of some _scheme? Has the intelligence left you? What have you become? A hypocritical loon, who says other and does other? That's what you are, Buzz… evilness you have chosen, again. But, you are given a chance to change. But that means you __have to change, not just __promise to change. Promises are promises, but deeds are deeds. You promised your father never turn again to the dark side, didn't you? And just like Mira said, you are doing it now. You are giving up to the evilness, by being too stubborn and proud."_

Lightyear noticed being in the middle of the village, on the main street. Light was glowing from the teepees, but silence reigned in the night. Obviously most of the Kalevans were sleeping, already.

"These people do have nothing against you, no part of plotting against you, Buzz Lightyear. They are just people living in their own narrow circles, not even aware of other solar systems, or civilizations in this galaxy. And your wife is one of them, an innocent woman who has done nothing wrong against you, either. But you have done everything wrong against her, Buzz Lightyear. Everything… You were given notes, weren't you? Why didn't you listen to Mira, when she noticed your wrong thoughts? She gave you advise, but you didn't listen to her. But you remember, don't you?_ ' I could swear that the Buzz Lightyear I know, has turned back to the dark side. It's like you wouldn't have a heart any more!' That's what she said… and she's right, I have no heart any more. A man with a heart would have taken good care of his wife, even if he at first hadn't liked her fully. And did Yoka have a choice, to like or not to like? She doesn't know me… and I don't know her. But perhaps… if I could return, find my heart again, maybe I could learn… learn to know her. But although you still don't know her, you should be gentle, caring, tender to her. Shouldn't you, Buzz?"_

His heart somewhat lighter after two hours' walk, Lightyear ultimately returned to his tent. But the remains of his terrorism were awaiting on the floor, in a big, sad mess. This dropped him down from the clouds of forgiveness. At first, there was the broken food plate, then Yoka's destroyed property. Torn linen pieces sang solemnly together with the shattered seashells and crock pieces. Wrenches went along his back. He had not recalled the amount of calamity the few notorious minutes had brought along. He had both mentally and materially crushed his poor wife.

Taking some lanterns and enkindling them, he made the shadows less brutal. With a broom he swept the floor, moving so silently that he possibly could not have awakened _her. The shattered objects that could not be repaired any more, were tossed out. But carefully he picked up the pearls, fangs and other things that had belonged to her necklaces and jewels. The fallen table was put back up, and at it, the disturbed man several hours clumsily re-laced all the tinsels. Completely wrong in order they were, awkwardly arranged to form some kind of re-done necklaces. But with his trembling, thick fingers, he could not have succeeded any better in this absurd task._

Late it was, as he scrambled to his own bed. At least the teepee was clean, maybe he could finally sleep. But… the horrible pictures of _her crying and cringing like that in front of him, returned. Buzz' blue irises grew full of fear towards __himself__.  He had been a monster. So much evilness lurked under his do-gooder cover? More appalling images… and then a question. "What… what is she doing? I-is she here any more?" Lightyear abruptly rose up. "Oh my goodness, what if she's not here any more? How can I ever apologize her? Oh, craters, I should have gone to console her right when I came back!" Thus he panicky bounced up to see if she was all right.   _

From farther off, in the breadth of the weak lantern, Buzz saw Yoka sleeping seemingly calm on her mattress. He crept to the rear corner of the teepee, his heart beating nearly in overspeed. And then it jammed in his throat, hasping his breath to some kind of poor whimper as he cast his eyes on her features. She had wrapped herself totally in the protection of the coverlets, her eyes and cheeks furthermore swollen because of the desperate crying. Moreover her bed seemed to be a lot inferior to his. This far, Buzz had not even cared to have a peep on how she lived inside this tent beside him, in her own, locked, subordinate world. Muddled Lightyear took a leer at his own wide, soft sleeping post, then comparing it with her hard-feeling berth. Gnawing his fingernails in shame, he stepped closer to Yoka, and knelt beside her.

His maltreated wife slept heavy and visionless slumber. He extended his shaking hand to brush some fallen locks away from her face, gathering them behind her ear.

"How could I have been so selfish, so arrogant…?" His conscience repeated again. Buzz leaned more down, stroking her flank a bit with his hand. "I never should have been like this to you… I have understood now that I have to, I need to, I _must change", he whispered many times, but so low that the dormant-laying girl did not startle awake. Shame, guilt, pity… they drew him so far, that he carefully put his arms around her body and lifted her up. No sign of waking up. _

"Isn't it so that you should sleep beside me?" he blabbered half-helpless to himself, "Isn't it so that you should feel yourself safe with me, and…" Carrying tardily her across the room, Lightyear roamed nervously in his ailing recollections. He crawled back to his own post, remarking at the same time that his mattress was at least two times thicker than hers, and at least the same measure wider.

"There you have a good place to rest…" he slipped her down, drawing her then back near him. Sharing his own felt fifty-fifty, Buzz slid his arms around Yoka, and buried her head deep in his armpit. She was warm and soft to hold, and the man felt some relief in his tormented chest. "There… it's warm to sleep here, and nicer to wake up than in your own lonely place…" Of course she did not answer through the curtains of dream, but he at least hoped, that the morning would rise more tenderly upon her now. There, holding her tight against him, he yet was still not absolved. Biting in turn his both hands' nails almost hysterically, he stayed many, many hours furthermore up. His conscious did not let him fall in the eternities of illusions. But at the weakest dawn, Buzz finally was so worn out, that the sleep came almost forcibly.

…to be continued…


	10. Humility

Yoka startled awake to a strange feeling. Half of her body felt irritatingly numb, as if it had been eternities crammed in somewhere, and forced to stay immovable. Some strange smell was constantly in her nostrils, and the bedstead did not feel familiar under her flank. And as she opened her cry-sticky eyes, an interjection of panic was to flee her lips. _The freaky__ Proud Crescent __was almost crushing her against his huge chest, squeezing her with a firm grip of a sleeper. Having at least two times wider shoulders than the girl, Buzz was not the most feeble person in Kaleva. Her head was burrowed somewhere under his chin, and the breath of his unbrushed teeth hovered around her nose._

"Yrf!" she pouted, starting to wriggle away from that clinch. And as if a thunderbolt had struck her, the memories of yesterday night flashed in front of her vision.  The yells, the humiliation, the crying… and then… the apologies… the kisses, the caresses. Was there any reason in that whole whirligig? Carefully loosing Buzz' wide arms from around her, she slinked up and laid a squint around the room. Her own bed was tidily made, like no one had at all couched in it. A drastic shiver went down her back, as she shifted her regard back to the snoring man. _He had carried her to lie beside him in the middle of the __night?__ Why? Why on earth? Yoka felt very odd, and additionally fearful. Was that… some kind of effort to __comfort her? Her image of him this far was that he deeply detested her. But… why this, now? At first he had brawled, offended her like an insane, broken her things, and then… Why had he gripped her like that yesterday, and instead of hitting, instead of a cuff had… __kissed her? If she was meant to be a house slave, or lower than a dog, why would her owner suddenly act like that?_

The cold trembles of fright and abashment did not cease. She wanted to run, run away, throw the heavy burden of grief off from her shoulders. And… _what if he would suddenly wake up? What would she say to him? What would he… __do to her? Yoka cringed to the horror of her own thoughts. What if the monster would come back, only fatter this time? Tumefying with evilness, ready to strangle her?_

However, more strange things Yoka-hanen perceived as her languid eyes caught the rest of the teepee. Where was the mess-up _he had thrown about around the floor? What she blearily recalled, the room had resembled a compost heap. Had that… had that odd man __spontaneously taken a broom, and taken care of his litter? No other logical explanation was there, since she was not a sleepwalker. In addition, as she laid her eyes on the table in one corner, there was no doubt of any more __who had played a butler. Lacing her fingers through the necklaces, a small titter escaped from her lips. He had 'repaired' her tinsel? Or could that be called a repair? So clumsily they were lumped, that maybe a five-year-old might have succeeded better._

Nevertheless, the fright did not quite abate. Proud Crescent was indeed the most uncanny man she had ever known. How to take this all…? It really did not make any sense. His behavior had no sense. What would follow was a black mystery. The return to the same psychological Hades, or something else?

Out there, the scent of humidity was in the air. A veil of white fog floated above the meadows, and the woodland back there almost steamed. A low pressure spread from the South, possibly bringing watery clouds along. But Yoka missed now the resin fragrance of the forest, the cool wind, and the freedom she had once felt while strolling alone in the wilderness. If she could at lest once run free, empty her heart from the desperation… But, although the girl would have endeavored to unburden her soul, it was quite not that easy. Moreover, she would need solitariness to recollect her world. Yesterday night had passed her a big basket of unsolved riddles, unanswered questions. Maybe in the caress of the woods, she would find the reason to this all. Maybe… maybe not.

Sneaking to change her clothes, she was ready in a few minutes. Something warm was needed, although the frost would possibly die away. In her leather knapsack she collected the remains of yesterday's supper. The breakfast could be enjoyed under the conifers. Rapidly, as a common habit, Yoka also lit the fire in the teepee, and gathered some nosh for Buzz onto a plate. After his yesterday's outburst of anger, the Kalevan could not be sure about anything any more. She had expected him to hit her, and thus was careful not to leave without making proper morning arrangements. However, when the swift labor was done, she would go. Her bow and quiver were soon set to their place on her back. So she whisked out, and left Buzz to hug his empty arms.

"Ynnhhhyyyynnnn…" Lightyear squirmed and whined in his sleep. Fuliginously squinting his eyes, he noticed that light was fluttering in trough the flue. Buzz lay on his back for a few minutes, in his delirious state not comprehending at all where he was. It was daytime… somewhere… he was not at home. Not on Capital Planet. And something was missing. His right hand fumbled the mattress on his side. Empty. What was there supposed to be…

"YOKA!" he abruptly squealed, his eyes turning wide. A drastic angina seized his chest. Last night. It was _real, was it not? Every even minuscule memento fragment returned, giving a hysteric shiver down his spine._

"Yoka? Yoka! Where are you?" he panted, rising up every single pelt and blanket. Empty, empty, it was all empty. "Where are you? Yoka?" tears blurred his gaze, as the panic took the hegemony. Shame, guilt, anxiety, his feelings had entirely made mush out of his puny brains. "P-please don't leave me…"

Putting his suede shirt and jacket inside out on, forgetting to tie the bands of his moccasins, Buzz stumbled out. There, in the blear daylight, the ground had turned slushy. Brown mud fought with the pure, innocent snow, whereas the sun shuddered somewhere behind a heavy cloud mass. Wavering it tried to illuminate the ground, looking wet and miserable. It had reached already the zenith, so possibly the day was teetering towards afternoon already. He did not know. Time had died. Only he and his angst existed, everything else was blurry nullity. And only one destination there was, to find Yoka-hanen. He _had to find her. Through the swirling sentiments he believed that she had run away, fled his atrociousness. Not paying attention at all to the fire and breakfast, he had head over heels dashed to search for her. Oh, how much he wanted to apologize again, show her how sorry he was after all this harshness._

The faiths about the conspiracy and evil shadows attacking Capital Planet had flown away. Last night, a whole new intuition had crawled in his conscious. The ranger instinct he had kept as his steering wheel, was _not fully authentic. It had failed him, fooled him. Evidently the lurking evilness had used __it as its devious weapon. Oh, if he only had at the first place started to listen to __the reason. Mira, Zarah, they had been so right about everything. And towards them he led his steps. What if Yoka was in Nova's teepee? Or maybe the Princess had seen her._

With terrible bluster Lightyear clambered -without knocking- in the Tangean's temporal hut. Both Mrs. Darkmatter and she were enjoying their lunch, dropping their jaws on the floor at the sight of the nonsensical captain. He slurred something like a drunken, looking absolutely hideous. His sweaty hair had glued on his forehead, his feverish eyes framed with black coronas. The crabbed emotions shone their every millimeter through his face.

"BUZZ?" the both women interjected.

"Haveyouseenher? Whereisshe? Isshehere?" he palpitated, starting insanely to turn over pots and tapestries.

Mira rose up to stop his madness. The teepee would look like a bedlam in few minutes, if he would not stop his hurricane. Grabbing hard his arm, she drew him away from XR's corner. Obviously Lightyear would have trashed even the robot in order to check out that the missing girl was not huddling inside it.

"Buzz! STOP IT NOW!" she snapped, "What are you doing here? Craters, you're crazier than as Zurg's pawn!"

The man stopped. Breathing burdensomely he was left to stare at Nova with the reeling, glazed gawp. She had called him _crazy. Crazier than as Zurg's pawn… yes, he admitted it now. He __was crazy. And would need to gather himself up. "S---sorry…" he gave a pip. "I… I'm sorry… s-sorry a-about e-ever-ything I've… umh…" The last syllables turned to some pathetic fizz. And so did the Princess gape at him even more confused._

"Buzz? What's going on?" 

"I… I d-don't know…" he monotonically lisped.

"Now would you at least explain WHY are you running in here, starting to throw things with no reason? Are you searching for something?"

"I--- I… I'm l-looking for h-_her…"_

"Who?" she tilted her head. Now there was no giddy sense even here.

"Y-yok-k-k-kkkkk…." The sole name turned to cough.

"You're looking for Yoka?" Mira's goggle turned piercing. "Why, may I ask? I thought you hated her. You have done something very nasty to her, haven't you? I can see that from your face." Taking a tap towards the beaten man, her statements were as sharp as the lances of his conscience. "Last night after Vainamoinen's speech, you did something to her, didn't you? And obviously she ran away, what? If you come to ask me, I haven't seen her since yesterday. And now, back to the topic. _Why are you looking for her?"_

Lightyear's knees doddered. With flopped shoulders, he almost cringed under the Tangean's austere gazing. She made his inners ache _more than his voice of righteousness. Oh, if he could have found a deep wormhole where to hide! A wretched earthworm was he also; that would be just an appropriate place for him. But his throat could yet form a high-pitched squeak, so that Nova received an answer. "I… I just w-want t-to a-a-aaa-a-a-polo-po-po-polo-polo-pologize… h-her… I d-did-dididididlll…"_

She heaved a deep sigh. The commanding officer was really out of his mind. However, something positive there was in the air. He was evidently regretting his doings, whatever he then had caused. Mira could only show him the flap door. Yoka-hanen was not here, why would he not go and ask the villagers? Buzz should have learned that much Sivakka during this time, so that he was able to inquire this kind of simple question. Yet… as he could not form even understandable sentences in English, assumingly he would fail. The man limped out, leaving the women to shrug after his shadow.

"W-was that _Buzz? Or did I see a ghost?" Choi scratched her crown._

"I have no idea what's going on", the blue one shook her head, sitting back down. "I only can hope he gets over this. He has put himself into a big mess. Something happened last night after we left the Council tent, but from his murmurs I couldn't find it out."

The unsound day dragged itself paralyzed frontwards. In pyrexy, Buzz ran around the village and the near woods, searching for his missing wife. All around the Kalevans kept whispering after this manic person. But if the others regarded his light of intelligence ultimately lapsing, the man himself gathered more and more sanity. However… all that hubbub was once again of no avail. Nothing was found. He struggled with his conscience, paranoidly avoiding the Council teepee. Maybe the Head would have known the odysseys of his daughter, but the crushed man could not go and crawl in front of him.

-----

After a long, strenuous hunt day, Yoka-hanen shuffled her tired legs forwards. With a strong steed she had galloped in the shades of the forest under the morning's twilight. Light frost had pinched her cheeks; the atmosphere had been briskish. Full of freedom… full of whiffs. But the midday's low pressure had molten the ice queen's brilliant dresses into runny silt. There, in the middle of this sludge the diurnal was mostly sacrificed to vanity. Or… maybe not completely. The woman had had some time to twine her mixed emotions together. However, still the ultimate comprehension was not found. Proud Crescent stayed as an enigma. Whether to believe that a change had begun… or to come back home and abhor the swollen state of the monster? To laugh or to cry… most possibly she would be made to cry even tonight. After all, back to him she would need to creep, here in the forest she could not stay. Courage was needed; she would need to face his shadow sooner or later again.

Nonetheless, today's most fruitless issue was the capture. Hours Yoka had ridden, encountering only empty traps. No capercailzies, no _kluklus, nothing. And during the return journey, her stubborn steed had suddenly hit the roof. Some dimwit dodo had spurted from a big bush right in front of the hoofed animal, putting it to lose its nerves. While the bird vanished idiotically quacking inside another thicket, her hackney had raised up to its hind legs. Being tired after last night's emotional explosion, the girl was not in the best shape with her reflexes. She had lost her balance, flying with a neat curve straight to the former nest of the dodo. Somewhere from there, she slowly had gathered herself up. The steed was gone. Muddy she was, thistles decorating her hair. Miles were there ahead to trudge. Her shoes soaked, the trousers wet until the knee line, she hours later achieved the border of the village. The sun had set its rays down already, not giving any warmth towards her. Shivering with cold, limbs aching because of the slight accident, she jogged into the women's sauna tent. A good warm bath would maybe cherish her a bit. In any case, hot herb drinks would be needed, so that flu would not surprise her. Who would then do anything in Proud Crescent's concentration camp, if she was sick? That would be the end, she understood.                   __       _

It was near midnight, when Buzz opened slightly the corner canvas of his teepee. He was heavily disappointed because of his futile search trips. Like the grand sea would have swallowed the frightened girl he had held last night. Where was Yoka? Would he never be allowed to apologize to her? His panic had abated somewhat, and the insanity did not burn his eyes like that any more. The appearance was a lot more decent than in the morning.

"Craters…" he denounced while thinking of the whole situation. Wife. As it was concluded, only for so little time ago this had just opened to him, what this whole issue meant. But his puny brains were furthermore so much in the arms of a whirlwind, that he would have possibly answered 'Umm… what? Who's Buzz Lightyear?', if someone had called him by his name right at this moment.

But… for his shocking surprise, Yoka was there abruptly in front of his perplexed eyes. Wondering why the home was deserted, the girl had stolen inside for a while ago. Well, maybe the man of the house was again on one of those odd tournées of his. She had finished her washings, put the nightdress on, getting gradually ready for the slumber. In the hut's posterior part, the woman was squatting on the floor, back against Buzz. She was completely absorbed in her little work. Combing her wet hair, she assorted still little burrs away from among it. The soaping had not fully released her locks from their dominance.  

However, Buzz now stood at the entrance like some traffic sign. He tried to gulp the sudden dollop away from his throat, but it did not vanish. Something gushed again his heart, squeezed it violently so that it made his inhales heavy and scorching. In a flash he recalled all the nasty words he had been bawling last night, the girl's crying, her panicky behavior… The combing maiden had not even noticed who was behind her, but went on with her slow labor.

Lightyear gathered his courage, and began to take noiseless steps towards her. He took a look at her feminine, light little movements, and the maroon, long nightgown she had put on. The Captain ruffled somewhat because of his emotions. For the first time, he was watching at her _being, not considering her as some irritating, inanimate piece of furniture. There… two steps more… his heart beat faster and faster, obviously it would soon get fees for overspeed._

"Odd… she doesn't seem to notice me…" Buzz spun the words in his rambling mind. One step. Silently he bowed down and put his both hands on her shoulders. The awareness struck her. Yoka screamed shrill in drastic fright, dropping the mirror and the comb. Faster than a bolt she jumped up, twirled around and shocked more.

_"__Mitae__sinae__haluat__minusta__?__ Et varmana ala hakata minua!" came a rapid yell from her direction, before she retreated into the corner again where the big pot was._

Buzz' shoulders flopped down, and a sad expression shadowed his face. He had ultimately frightened the woman with his cloak-and-dagger creeping. Both of them were entirely perplexed, there just staring at each other again. Fear and confuse were reflecting from her big eyes, and Buzz' blue ones were full of shame. Obviously the woman was afraid that he would start a similar kind of yell-and-curse show as yesterday. What could be expected, since neither one of them knew each other? Complete strangers, just tied up with a knot without asking.

Now Buzz was approaching her with slow steps, his arms spread wide. With a mournful voice he attempted to persuade her coming away from behind the earthenware. That seemed to be her sworn hideout.

"Yoka… I… I didn't mean to scare you again… I… I've tried to search for you all day long and I… I really really want to apologize to my idiocies…"

She did not of course understand a half of this sentence; merely just that he was approaching her.

"No co-mee, no co-mee", she put her arms also in front of her, in some kind of defense pose.

Sighing Lightyear went on, "Yoka, please… I won't hurt you, I just want you to know how sorry I'm because of all this… I've been so stupid. I'd never, ever hurt you…"

He caught finally up the big pot. As to produce at least some kind of signal of peace, he sat right in front of her on the woven carpet. Well, the girl was squatting as well, so now they were on the same level of height.

And the bashfulness shone furthermore from her regard. It was as if she had fumbled some words of English in her mind, but they never achieved her lips.

"W-would you come here?" Buzz whispered, without even pondering further what he was supposed to do. His conscience was shrieking to him, scolding and telling that he should try consoling, whatever that then was. Consoling. Tenderness, in other words.

"Craters, what am I going to do…? I don't want to see her like that, not on this planet! Buzz Lightyear has failed to be a hero, he has failed to maintain the decent and virtuous manners he has had. Blast!" the cobweb of thoughts was woven thicker in his brain cells.

"Uh… w-would you come here?" he repeated his question. This time, he patted his knee with his palm.

The woman gawped at him, taking a look from his legs to face. There was no evilness there, only sadness. Or that was what she was able to read from his gesticulations. Did he ask her to come to him? _Why? What would he profit of that? _

Yoka took a small stir towards Buzz. And that was enough, he gripped her from her shoulders and drew the girl to sit in his lap. She yelped, but then again met his beseeching eyes.

"I… I'm sorry, I… I just want you to know t-that…" Without observing his own movements, Lightyear had pulled Yoka right against his chest, and closed his strong arms tight around her.

"No-o, nn…" she put some hasty sounds in the middle, while trying to push his massive thorax at least even a bit further.

"Why?" he whispered dejectedly, looking grievous. Buzz ran his other hand's fingers through her open hair and pressed his forehead against hers. "I… I d-don't know if you even understand what I try to tell you, I… I j-just yesterday got the point, that… in what kind of situation we are, and I… I so much would like you to know… umm… that umm… emh… ommoo…" There the words tangled up. Buzz' heart was bouncing up to his throat ten times a second. At the very moment, he realized how close he was holding the girl. And inch, an inch distance. There was something in her presence that made him want to act against the space ranger inside him. This same emotion had been buzzing in him yesterday, that something inexplicable. But, biting his teeth forcefully together, holding his breath for a while, he fought back, and won himself. He could, could not put his lips on hers, what he would have so desperately wanted. And he after all did not even understand _why he would have wanted to do that._

"No, no, no. Keep yourself together, Buzz Lightyear. You have done harm enough already, keep yourself together. You have acted like you'd be walking the paths of the dark side. Now, keep your patience, Buzz Lightyear." The man had closed his eyes, repeating those statements like some hymn. And furthermore her soft, fresh cheek was so close, so close…

Her small whisper woke him up. "No-o und-eerstand?" Opening his eyelids, Buzz comprehended he had been chanting his brainwork aloud.

"Uh, no, I… I was t-talking to myself. I…" Cupping his large palm on her bucca, he gave a sigh, "Yoka, I… we… we have to… _learn to like each other. I've been such an idiot… I… I've been treating you completely inhumanly, I…" He went on hiding her head under his chin. Slowly he tousled her hair with his fingers, smoothing it, probing it. It was not the thickest of kind, but felt nicely smooth and soft under his hand. She seemed not to resist. _

"Do… do you l-like this?"

"Laik…?"

"Umm… yeah, I mean… do you it like that I… umh… well… uh… sm-smooth your hair a bit…?" he wheezed. And in his brains, a sneer grunted, _"Craters, couldn't you pick up anything more reasonable to ask?"_

Like. That word Yoka knew. The anomalous man was asking her that did she like what he was doing? Strange question, indeed. As she listened to herself, it anyhow did not feel bad, the thing what he was in the middle of. Odd it maybe was, but not uncomfortable, not at all. His fingers felt soft, tender. But why would he act like this? Why would he want to know what _she liked? Had not __he all the time been the one that needed praising, serving, attention?_

"I… l-like." A tiny, shy message was said.

He smiled dolefully. At least he had done something that had maybe brought a bit comfort for her. He found her hand, and took it in his own. So like this looked the hand of a woman, who had done hard work all her life? Chappy, sinewy, with a wide palm… still it was so small compared to his one. And the poor thing did not dare to squeeze back, when he massaged her fingers? Scared, poor thing. He brought the hand to his lips, giving a peck on it. But she drew it rapidly away, almost bouncing off from his hold. In Kalevan culture, hands were considered as 'inferior', something that were for work and fabrication. No one was supposed to _kiss them._

"Please… don't go…" he sighed. But she was already on the other side of the room, arranging some earthenware for supper. And so he had to surrender, and sink in his sorrow for a moment.

The food did not taste, although Buzz had eaten nothing this day. He forcibly gulped it down, and flushed it with a cup of apilannatustaja-milk. She ate quickly, with a huge appetite after the wandering in the forest.

"If I could only… get to know her a little more…" he scrutinized her every stir with a woeful glance. "She's my _wife… and I don't even know her." The last remains of the meal were gnawed, and the sleeping hours began.  _

Yoka tapped to her own mattress, beginning to set aside the pelts and blankets. A heavy yawn of exhaustion made her body tremble. But more she got Goosebumps as she felt two hands gripping her arms again from backwards.

"No, Yoka…" a pleading voice came at her ear. "D-don't…"

"No what…?"  she laid her diffident mien down to look at his imploring visage. Hadn't that person caused her enough consternation already? What there still was that she was not allowed to do?

"D-don't go there… alone… I…" he wined an arm around her, beginning to lead her towards his own bed, "It's… warmer and… softer and better here… beside me. I… I don't want you to sleep alone there."

This sentence she understood, almost wholly. Abashed she resisted a little, but he carefully pushed her down to sit at the edge of his mattress. Wrapping his own felt around her, Buzz then bit by bit drew her nearer, down, to rest in his arms. Gently he placed her head on his shoulder, smoothing her hair and whispering consoling words. And… how she felt his embrace, it was indeed mellow, hearty. How could it be like this suddenly? Did he not hate her? Proud Crescent was truly a nodus. Nonetheless, the fear somehow flew away, and gradually a velvet dream rose instead. Closing her eyes, she soon puffed like a child under his strong arm. And cozy it was also for him to reach the dale of darkness, as he knew he was at least partly forgiven.

…to be continued…


	11. Breaking the iron curtain

In the morning, Lightyear, for his relief, found Yoka still beside him. She had actually been awake for half an hour already, but something inside her had resisted to leave the post. And true was that yesterday's lassitude still affected. The air hung inert above there, placidly weaving the webs of calmness. Thus she had let herself rest, also in a way curious -yet a bit afraid- to see what would be his waking-up-reaction. With a firm grasp, the man kept her burrowed under his arm even asleep. But soft was his clasp, yet so full of some odd fire. Waiting, waiting, listening to his heavy breaths… feeling his chest go up and down under her cheek… she had waited. Had waited, light trepidation grilling her heart.

A gentle smile answered her. Then some English that did not bring her meaning in her own language. But the emphasis was mild, without an arrogant nuance. At the moment she was to shuffle up, but he drew her back down.

"No, no, don't go…please stay with me, Yoka…"

"Stey?" Blink. But what about the housework? She had rested already enough, and now perhaps could go on with the chores, as there was no threat of his anger clouding the sun. 

"Stay, yes…" He pondered the issue for a minute. Buzz did not wish the girl to vanish like she had done yesterday. The bird must not fly away, but how to prevent it? After all the confuse it would be comforting to feel her beside him… to get to know her at least a little bit. Questions, questions, questions… what was she like when she was not working silently like a slave? What did _she like? She had liked the stroking of her hair; that he remembered from the last night. Unobserved his fingers had run themselves through her locks, yet his hand kept her head resting on his shoulder. And in proportion, she had quaternaries teeming along her spine. Why did he __voluntarily want to hold her like this? Why not just to let her go…? Where was the gruesome shooing away? Why, why, why…? _

A bubble of ideas popped into his mind. What if Mira would be kind and borrow her wrist communicator just for this day? Maybe he could that way get to know _her just a teensy weensy bit better. When there would be no murals in front of the tongues, would he dare to __discuss something with her? Would she answer? __What would she answer?_

"Umm… Yoka? What if we'd get up now and go to see Mira? Emm… _Sininen, tell-ta?"_

Suspiciously she eyed at him. Did he try to fumble _her language? "Yu tr-y __ja say __teltta?"_

"Uh-huh."

"Yu… want go see-e Sininen _ja… and she… pleice?"_

An affirming smirk responded her.

Mira Nova goggled at Lightyear and his companion with wariness. The man looked cranky in her eyes. Those stoop shoulders and that tired gaze wandering on the floor did not belong to the stubborn proud hero she knew. Yesterday he had resembled a frantic hurricane, wrangling around the village. Had a trunk fallen on him, or what? Insomnia's purple shades were under his eyes, his cheeks sunken. Although he seemingly had dozed off blissfully yesterday, his rest had been intermittent, restless. And the company was not quite charming either, with her still succulent, fearful gaze.

"Umh… Buzz? What did happen to you?" the Tangean wanted answers. "You look… just awful." The shameful man took her somewhat aside, explaining blurrily what had occurred between him and the girl, and how much sorry he was even to Mira for his heedless demeanor. And… that he wanted to borrow her wrist communicator.

"But for what? I may need it. It's the most precious thing over here, and what if you break it?" she was reacting against the idea. But her crumple shifted to positive wonder, as he explained his purpose better.

"That's very kind of you, Buzz, to try to build up a peace with her." Her sonus turned yet very severe, while she folded her arms over her torso. "You owe her a lot, can you realize that? I've been watching with horror how you have been barking her from day to day, until… she evidently crushed and you woke up, that's right? I hope the lesson I lately gave you about your commissions, put you _think at least a bit."_

Lightyear frowned at the floor, but won his pride, admitting her every statement. And that it was quite much the credit of her speech that he had gravely began pondering the events the night before. Pride was hard to swallow, but instead of it, a humiliation had crept into his soul.

"But… I wish you'd give me this change and let me _discuss with her. I don't know, will it do anything better, but… I want to try."_

"Very well, then. I give you the translator, but be careful with it", Mira nodded. "And… if I were you, I'd… umh… square my shoulders a bit. For instance… you could comb your hair and slightly shape that horrible mess on your face…"

"Uhh… yeah." Lightyear skimmed his cheeks and chin. But his fingers met something unfamiliar there, or actually for the first time noticed the peculiarity. Nova understood his tumult, rising up a hand-held mirror in front of his waned visage.

"There we go. Now look at you, what have you been creating out of yourself? Did you just at this instant note that bush on your jowl? It's been like that pretty long."

Aback he slid his index along his bucca. It was true that Buzz had spend his weeks in a hallucinating bubble, been drawn forwards by his jumbled instincts. He had had no reason to study himself. There were evident little wrinkles under his eyes, permanent ones. Those had not existed before the crash-land. And… if his facial hair had been dark blue, that reflection could have belonged to a certain outergalactic foe.

"Craters, I or… my beard are not supposed to look like this! But hmm… well, it won't look bad if I shape it a bit."

"Like I said, I don't know what you have tried to create out of yourself, but I hope that you can control yourself better in the future…" she primed her lips, and disappeared behind a canvas to collect the wrist widget.

Yoka tilted her head back and forth in wonder when the Princess attached the Star Command communicator to her left arm. It would be simpler to carry this way, and palpably this model was way too small to be fit around Buzz' wider wrist.

"Now be careful with it. Although the case is reinforced with terillium carbonic alloy, these things _can go broken, as we've seen already…"_

"Sure, sure", Buzz puckered up, "I can figure out how important our last bit of more technological life is."

The seas opened instantly as the couple stepped out of Nova's teepee. It was strange to talk with two languages, but still understanding what the partner said.

-------

But silence conquered the morning. The duo could have conversed about everything between clouds and swamps, but the chants did not flow. They sat opposite to each other in Proud Crescent's tent, at the fireplace. Breakfast went down tardily, tasting like cardboard.

"Umm… how… how old are you?" he got something hacked out.

"Me…? I have seen one hundred and seventy-six cycles of moon Ilmatar", Yoka answered her mouth half full of bread.

So… they had an own calendar. Of course. Buzz could not assume a piece of asteroid based on that. She did not look old, but not very girlish either.

"Humm… what do you like to do? I mean… you were somewhere yesterday, I didn't… s-see you. Did you… do something you enjoyed?"

Odd questions. Indeed. She scratched her hair, meditating. "I was… in the forest yesterday, but I got all wet and muddy so it was not so enjoyable I thought… it to be. But I… _usually like to wander in the forest. It is my second home. And sometimes I… -at least when I still lived with my honorable father- I read the writings of __viisaat. They are interesting. I was taught to read, and that is a good thing for a woman to master. I like music… but I cannot sing very well. When I was little, I often went secretly to listen to the __viisaat or someone who was an expert in singing lyric poetry and legends…" She amazed her sudden fluent telling. Her speech did not remain glued in her gums any more?_

"Nature, that's nice. My home planet Morph is a bit of a place like this. There's a lot of woods, lakes, some mountains… Hmm, well I can't sing either. Heh, not really a culture vulture. I… I enjoy my work, or _enjoyed. I don't know, what's going to happen to me now."_

"What kind of work did you do? Are you a leader, eldest…?" she had nowadays the image of him being at least a king in his own universe.

"No, no!" his smirk widened, "I am _a space ranger, well… I guess that term doesn't much tell you anything, eh? I defended the universe, fought the evil, foiled up the diabolic plans of the dark forces, no more no less. I'm a sort of a policeman. Well, heh, my father was an emperor. I guess that makes me a bit higher in the rank after all, but since I'm not gonna be any heir of throne any more, I should be just an average chap."_

That revealed her almost nothing, except that the beliefs about him being some mighty, spoiled aristocrat intensified. He had been a prince? Well, well… not much of _an average chap, she reckoned. The rest of his jabber was unknown definitions that had no linguistic analogues in Sivakka. But at least he had troubled himself to answer her something. The atmosphere was not so oppressing any longer, either._

"What would you like to do today?"

"Me?" she raised her head. _Like to do? She would need to take the chores in her hands, and almost immediately. Clothes needed to be washed, food prepared, water carried… that was the part of a Kalevan woman. "Why… why do you ask such a thing, Proud Crescent? I am doing housework the whole day, like usually. It is not depending on if I… like it or not."_

Lightyear's thoughts darkened. Another issue he had not even paid attention to, before. He had seen her toiling under heavy loads, and just had spat in that direction. Where had been his care, his helping hand? Nowhere.

"No, Yoka, not today. We… we need to go somewhere else place than this. I want you to spend some time with me, just the two of us. I… I want to learn to know you. We could for example, umm… go out, go out to the wilderness, if that's what you like. Didn't you say you like to wander in nature? Then when we get home I could help you, umh, with your chores."

She gawped at him her jaw on the floor. The bread had fallen from her fingers, gone crumbs on her shirt. Had she suddenly started to suffer from paranea? Or what was that totally egregious yackety-yak the bizarre male opposite to her driveled?

"Proud Crescent… you are not… _serious, are you?" she lisped._

He could intuit the confuse. Usually he had barked to her like some rabid mongrel, and now pleading. No wonder it made her off the rails. Hence Buzz rose up, and knelt right beside her. A tender arm was slid around her shoulders. His tone fell, coming softly out. "I am serious. I guess… it sounds unbelievable after all the things I've mercilessly done to you, eh? But… as said, I'd like to learn to know you. I seemingly now got a wife, and I don't know her at all. Uh, well, that's why I asked Mira to give her translator to us so that I could talk to you better. If I'm meant to stay married with you, it would be a good thing for us to learn to like each other."

Her glazed goggle remained. Something to that direction he had sputtered yesterday, but as it now came out loud and clear, it made an eerie discord. Yet, that mien was honest. No frenzy was hardening the blueness of his irises; neither did hatred draw the corners of his mouth into a skull-esque grimace. His hand wandered along her shoulders, maybe attempting to console the chaos. She finally gulped, asking, "You… you really wish m-me to… stay with you? But…"

"Uh-huh. I wish that you'd stay with me, and you'd let me to stay with you. And that we could go somewhere… like a trip, or something. I don't know how you guys over here call traveling, well… heh, I don't know if you travel either, but…" he started rambling again. "But in any case, some place that you'd like. I know nothing about this planet, I can't suggest anything."

The years flied in front of her vision, gathering up to some kind of phantasm. There was a place that had always attracted her, a place that was obscured by the legacies, the sagas… beyond the miles loomed the great mountains, with a hidden conundrum. As Lightyear drew her to seat herself in his cuddle, she meekly began narrating a little story about her childhood. And he listened eagerly, being glad that she had courage to open up her mind.

"As I told you, Proud Crescent, I like to listen to the vocalist masters of this village. Well, they sing legends, and I do not quite much believe in them… but they are imaginatively attractive. I especially like the story about the destruction of Suur-Kaleva, which you heard my honorable father to sing in the celebration. It… it enchanted me already as a child, and later on, as I heard that there was a truth basis in it, I decided to find out more. Well… I believe I never was the most well-behaving child of this village. I wanted to know, if this mysterious city truly existed… so… I ran away from home. To have my own adventures."

Buzz' merry chuckle came from beside her. Now there was a thing he could clearly see, that wild tomboy having her own odysseys. "Suur-Kaleva, eh? Go on, go on."

"It was the warmest summer then, I was a pre-teen, I think…"

"A daredevil, what?"

"Uh…" she turned her leer to face his expression. His abrupt, playful mood convulsed, like a whole room of potatoes to be peeled by hand. And as he grinned there that over-smug smirk, his big teeth pressed together, she could not determine anything any longer. Were there any _normal people living in the skies? Or was the most atypical individual of the unknown universe just by some statistic whim plopped down to be her owner?_

"Just kidding, please go on with your tale."

"Umh, I… ran away from home, intrigued by the myths. I had carefully learned by heart a map, where the location of that ancient city was drawn. The whole thing was not actually a challenge for me, since I was taught to hunt, to survive in the nature already in my very early youth. I took a canoe, paddled down Plutinaklutina-Noro, and met the fork of it and the majestic Lirilirilori. It was hard work for a half-grown girl to row upstream, but I made it. A few days with my strength, it took to achieve the destination, but it was worth it. I loved my freedom, the liberty to explore what I wanted." Her sonus cracked a bit, since recalling her state now. An unequal marriage, bound to serve a peculiar man for the rest of her life… "There was indeed a city, buried in lava. Of course the vegetation has quite much taken over it now, since it has been tens of thousands of Lapanen-moon cycles since the _Purkaus. No one ever came there, since it is regarded as a graveyard, a place not to be disturbed. I do not know why, maybe some honorable citizens are just superstitious. Well, I climbed up the mountainside, spent a few days in a little tent. No beasts usually move there in the summertime, so it was safe, well… I thought it was safe. But I had my escapade."_

She brought her fingers to her collars, picking up one of those exotic necklaces jazzing up her long neck. This particular one looked older than the others, patinated by unknown eras. Purple and yellow stones gleamed in their light metallic brackets, and some striped black ones were additionally dotting it. They had originally formed some kind of complex figure, but it was gone now. As well as the other jewels, this one had likewise been in the claws of sabotage. Having a bit sense yesterday in his puny brains, Buzz had dragged its pieces to a smith. As the alloy was somehow molded back, he with a bucketful of apologies had pressed it in her palms… amidst last night's mayhem.

Initially his hand approached hers over her anconal. It raised up the object, being as ashamed as the whole male. "You… found this from there? Uh… I'm sorry I broke it, I… Mister Ilmarinen tried to restore it for you."

She exhaled with some regret. It was a deformed Quasimodo after Lightyear's raving madness. But it would not crochet any fine tablecloth of peace, if she started complaining about his deeds. And who knew, his fury might blaze up again. Those fingers that now blandly brushed her neck, might turn violent, and maybe crumple into a deadly grip around her throat. There was the size of her confidence.

"Yes… I found it from there", she decided to pass the awkward side comments, "Actually from a building that had partly survived the disaster. Some more forceful landslide had brought a part of it visible, and through a window-hole, I crawled in. I remember there were all kinds of strange objects lying around there, but I liked only this. It was a larger structure, there were dusty rooms continuing and continuing deeper inside… It was like if the mountainside had just eaten the metropolis, but not chewed it. Intact chambers… but my courage ended when I… well I think I saw a skeleton lying in one corner. I am not afraid of such things any more, but as a little girl, I was. So, there ended my exploration as I screaming ran away."

"What happened then?"

"Some days later I was back home, and my honorable father whipped me so that I could not sit for a week. But I learned how to behave in front of him. And never visited Suur-Kaleva again."

"But you'd like to go there now, wouldn't you?" he simpered.

"I do not know if you would wish to…" she began, but stopped while alerting to the grip of his arms around her.

"…but you'd like that, wouldn't you? The mysteries there still allure you there? I'm ready to go there if you want. I could finally share some private time with you."                       

----

"But, but, b-b-but Buzz! That's just… insane! I though you had got your senses back!"

"I am perfectly in my sense, Mira. I am not thinking that Evil Emperor Zurg is diabolically trying to conquer the Galactic Alliance or trying to turn everyone's pet kittens into man-eating mutant fuzzballs that stand at your front door with fork, knife and bib. I believe he is knitting peacefully a purple mitten in his house. AND I do _not believe that Darth Vader is my cousin's brother's schoolfriend's old room mate. Thus I conclude that I'm now in my full reason." Lightyear folded his arms across his chest. _

The Tangean frowned at him, "But this device is our only remain from the civilized world! You cannot just take it miles away! You'll break it for sure and then we've lost everything!"

His erect pose drooped. Yes, it was a stupid idea; even he admitted it. But how was he going to communicate with Yoka, if he had not that one valuable wrist communicator with him? The plans were ready to be thrown to the trashcan, then. Futile.

"I mean, it's not a trick to let you use it here, but somewhere out there? It's too risky!"

With a chest-tone, he defended his good intentions. "Mira, I'd wish you'd give me and my wife this change. I want to learn, I want to come to know her as a person. Didn't you yourself say that I should start treating her better? I _thought of your scolds. Mira, you must understand that I need some privacy with her, in order to follow all the… uh… guidelines. __I asked her what she would like to do, and that was the answer! I didn't come up with it, don't blame me. I'm just trying my best to indemnify her what I've caused, by trying to give her an opportunity to do what __she'd like. Just… if you'd try to see it my way this time."_

Shaking her head, the Princess gradually surrendered. Maybe he was right this time, although all the previous epochs his endocranial life had possessed the IQ of a rubber duck. It was she who had kept the homily running. And his goals were honest. Fifteen minutes of more murmuring and garrulity passed, and Buzz with Yoka walked out of Nova's tent… the Star Command wrist communicator furthermore attached to the Kalevan's left arm. The good feelings had won, giving a benevolent point for the couple. Or course the blue person was throwing the last warnings at the flap of the marquee, but the Captain promised to take good care of both the translator and the girl. So Sininen would need to survive a few days without technical aid, whereas the time would perhaps indicate to be very valuable for some others. Well, the aim of the absence was not left as any cabal. The coordinates of Suur-Kaleva were strictly given to Mira. And guidance what to do if the mates would not appear back in a certain time.  

After a few hours, a canoe left the river's haustrum, boating two unsure gestalts towards the snowy landscapes…

…to be continued…


	12. Inside a rune

Whitecaps foamed, splashed against a lonesome canoe. Like a frail cocoon, it sailed in the middle of a profuse stream. But its course it kept, firmly, steadily wrestling against the weapons of nature. And the human being toiled, with sweat and effort. But the raving torrent was soon behind the hills, and a calmer upper course smiled ahead. Narrowed this black, exhaling flux had, but still as wide as the open sky, it laid its tentacles across the panorama.

The banks were white, sparkling when the sun touched them. Immense conifer forests told the sagas of untouched wilderness. Back there, mountains shadowed the sky, rising as imperial beings over the clouds. But a half of their splendor was stolen now, as a field of white mass had gathered to hover high above the treetops. The sun roared somewhere beyond there, but frustrated it had to give up. Its path was meager in the near polar night. Soon it was captured behind the horizon. Long shadows were drawn with ink and grey paint, as the early afternoon turned to nocturne.

But at the moment, a pale light still fluttered as a calming gauze in the air. The brown elfin cocoon cradled among the mist. Two paddles guided it forwards, towards a little side river. About a mile ahead, its furrow became deeply buried amid high cliffs, meandering there like an ebony snake. Ostensibly, this fellow was not quite content with its big sister, Lirilirilori. Far, far away it isolated itself from the main bourn. After it had had its own adventures, it seemingly crept ashamed back. Maybe it was safer beside the mightier sibling than to roam singly.

But towards this rebel the canoe headed. A detour it was, but more placid than the queen itself. Whereas Lirilirilori formed waterfalls and whirlpools during the next miles, this merciful wet serpent dived occasionally even under the rocks. And an escapade was this side flumen itself, since its shores trolled about history, myths. A few manly pushes, and the boat was separated from the main course. The aching arms could rest a little, as only a gentle thrust was enough to fight against the waves.

Two days Buzz and Yoka had traveled together. The atmosphere felt odd for the both of them, as being here now quarantined abaft the civilization. As he pondered, scaled his feelings, he admitted that it felt a bit irritating to see a woman handling men's things as well as the masculine counterpart. She could survive here in the hard, ruthless boondocks better than he. Under that slim, a bit thin form was deep-rooted energy. Those spunky muscles handled the cascades, the tacking. Whereas he stood hesitant his thumb in his mouth, the girl had already taken the lead. But then again, this was her home, this was what she had used to. If someone had slammed an ASIC in front of her, or asked her to design something in VHDL, poor Yoka-hanen would have found her clumsy digit scratching her hair too.

However, there was also admiration. Admiration that grew every second. Buzz did not understand why his heart yearned to stay in _her presence. Sometimes a peculiar itch tinkled in his abdomen when he watched her rowing figure sitting in front of him, back against. What on Geonosis was the matter with him? A light discussion usually fanned this abashing feeling away, but then it somehow lurked back. Strange, strange…_

Then again, Yoka could feel his piercing stare targeted to her back. She did not want to show how she sensed it, but her black hackles were assiduously up. What did this man want from her? Why had he after all suggested _going somewhere, away from Kaleva, away from her father's presence…? What could the skeptical woman have known about __him? So far the wild imagination went, that it pictured him taking her life away and burying her comatose being somewhere in the unknown forests. An irritating 'gift' that needed to be gotten rid of… No one would be there to witness anything. The half-worshipped male could just whistling walk away, and slip every law._

But was that not a naïve and stupid prejudice? She spat at her own terrors, trying to act as natural as possible. Still… nothing could fade the fact that he had been kind to her just for a few days. And after all, he never had given a proper explanation _why he had maltreated her in the first place. Now that silent staring… a few times she had asked Proud Crescent to sit in the fore, but the results were depressing. He could not lead, moreover the Captain was a hazard. The boat could afford no capsizing. This culture did not know life jackets. So if he would make a tiny mistake, the icy larynx of the black river awaited. So it was safer to let her supervise… and tolerate that weird gaze._

But serene was the paddling along the little river. A little wind whispered in the bottle-green spruces, their white hats contrasting with the strong, deep color. Even so, gradually the gray stone took over them, forming a majestic masonry on the both sides. The channel was now like a castle moat, the sharp high rocks behind there were the towers. In the half-dark afternoon, a mystery seemed to soar all around.

"Beautiful…" Buzz kept nodding.

"The fishermen that dare to climb up Lirilirilori, usually do use this passage. But it is older than our chronology tells. You see it… right here." Yoka turned her eyes over her shoulder, pointing at the furrow's wall. That was not just solid stone any more, but chiseled boulders. Masterly they were set one upon another without mortar. Where nature had lazed, a crafty hand had continued the incomplete labor.

His brows were drawn up. "You mean… the Suur-Kalevans built this?"

"Well, I do not know it strictly, but so do the lyrics tell. The _viisaat sometimes sing about a ruler that lived before the __lentolaiset were born. Those were the ones who were told to be able to fly with the wings of Kokkolintu. __Viisas Mujunokka was one of the first great kings of Suur-Kaleva, one of those who shared and developed their wisdom. It is told that he built this channel. '__Kolme__ varista, istui aidalla… silivatiseilaa, silivatiseilaa, yksi lensi pois…'" she fumbled some immemorial song with a deep voice._

An airy smirk brought his mouth corners up. "Interesting. And why did you say you can't sing? That sounded nice."

She turned her regard down. "No, I cannot sing. Maybe a little, but never, never like my honorable father. He knows by heart almost every legend written, and the way he plays the zither… I… I cannot. That gift was never granted to me. And as a teenager… well… I was never accepted in the choir of the daughters of _suuremot. It was a shame for my honorable father because… I do not know what you value somewhere behind the rainclouds and thunder, but rune singing is our most respected custom. Yes, I was a shame again for honorable Vainamoinen. My too-deep, rough and loud voice did not go together with the bright sopranos. So I was a shame, and earned my whipping."_

With a nasty taste in his mouth, Lightyear listened. This girl did not seem to have had a very smooth life. Obviously she did not quite fit into the cultural die press, but was somehow an outsider. Maybe that had pushed her into the wilderness. And then he had appeared and maltreated her more.

"I… I don't care if they say this or that!" he attempted comforting, "Well at least I think it sounded nice. Heh, by all the antigravity suspenders, I can't drum even a tin can, not to mention then singing! But I can defend the universe and…" the utterance got stuck. The bark of his conscience sneered in the middle. _"You need goodness to defend the universe. And you failed in goodness. Don't be proud of things you fail. Crawl back, admit your flaws, and throw your pride once away. You can't defend the universe as the person you created out of yourself. Wake up, Buzz Lightyear." _

He hacked the unfinished sentence away. "Uh… no. I don't know if I can defend even the universe any more. I don't know what I can. But I know you can sing. Uh, well, I liked it. So don't underestimate yourself. I… uh… well… if you want to… go on with the legend, I'd… like to hear more."

Stupefaction. It was Yoka's luck that her back was there to hide her puzzled countenance. Stillness. He had used to command her to be _quiet. To shut up. By the stump chips, why would Proud Crescent voluntarily want to hear any croaking with a false note? And almost away from the boat she balked, as a hand was set on her shoulder. Absorption into the thoughts had had the governance over her._

"What's the matter?" The question was soft.

"N-nothing, I…" No courage to look at the man. And the canoe needed steering.

"Well, would you then sing to me? It's quiet here, the water won't interfere with your voice."

A bemused caw rasped deep from her throat, trying to fulfill his wishes. But it grew clearer, as the story of _viisas Mujunokka and his era went on. __"Laukkaa ratsu reima, hei reima, hei reima…"  The mute wind accompanied the husky melody, and the boat advanced in the black water._

An hour passed. The light was almost swallowed, but the day would still go on. Two lanterns were lit to lie in the bottom of the transport. Here, in the arms of this rebel serpent, it was safe to paddle even in the dark. There were no dangerous shallows, no insidious traps. It was moreover like a canal, as the ancient songs had recited. Initially the Kalevan kept humming something called _Urkin__ parempi humppa. Infrequently the river dived now under either hand-made or natural stone tunnels. Complex pictography enchanted their walls, where the sphere of the lantern kissed the cold rock. Buzz was quite sure he could distinguish some of the same persons in them that were shaped as statues in Kaleva. But mostly they were different. An old man with a zither, swearing a younger male inside a swamp … a smith forcing a roundish mill of some kind… a young, vengeful man cursing something a hand in the air… Buzz was drifting inside an epic. Cupolas were curved above his head; the dark-blue, brisk air breathed around. And as the last tunnel was behind, a wondrous view filled his senses. The carvings turned to statues, rising high in the both sides of the flumen. Their austere characters were outlined against the shadowy sky, floating in the very last blink of light. Time had not perished their majesty, although their models and paragons had faded away, turned to dust. The stern stone faces greeted the yawl, guarding the last hundred meters of this tributary. Vainamoinen's rune singing echoed in his ears, as he recalled the masterpiece __Kalavale. Although the captain had been so ignorant then, he still summoned up. He was a Kalevan himself, now, and this was perhaps his blood now too._

Lirilirilori met its little sister again. And there ended the odyssey of the canoe. Too shady it was to continue any longer today. A night in a camp awaited, alike yesterday. The trek advanced a bit tardily, but that was Lightyear's wish. The village's absence freshened up his feelings, here he could be his own sovereign. If Buzz had foreseen his current behavior two weeks ago, he would have fainted in shock. Where was the hero that worried about the state of the Galaxy? Worried about the schemes being intrigued around him? Not even his adorned space ranger uniform he had on, but it had been left in its peace in Kaleva. Fringed suede trousers, moccasins and a soft leather jacket were more comfortable to wear. And progressively the frost had stopped bugging him too. Frost, so what? It was a bit cool, but everything could be handled. A good fire and some pelts, and there was enough warmth… if not to mention the certain female he now almost forced to sleep in his arms. She was somehow so nice to hold, so mellow he by some means suddenly considered finding her pressed against his chest after the night's dreams. Yoka had not dared to ask why he wanted her not to slumber in her own post, but had yielded to his whims. Today his behavior had again been so strange that compared to it, it was merely nothing to fall asleep under his arm. And after all, the girl had to admit it… it _did feel bland. So it should have been perhaps from the very first night on, unless the faith-lethal inferno had not stepped instead._

----

Some time went by; two mornings glistened and faded away. Buzz did not want to hasten the journey. With every breath, he enjoyed the tart air's nip, the silent freedom. So happy he felt to have her by his side, although clearly sensing the fear under her cover.

The mountainside of Suur-Kaleva rose in the highnesses in front of two tiny figures. A quantity of lone eagles soared somewhere above the eternities, their eerie cries only bewailing. The city of dead, lost, forgotten… Buried it was, made to be just a shadow. It was allowed to subsist only in the runes, not to be stepped in with a man's shoe. But now the hush had been disturbed. However… what could a cold rock do? Šeol could not spit its victims suddenly out. No reason for angst.

Lirilirilori had leaded the mates towards a mountain range. Occasionally the tops had been sharp as needles, occasionally carved, formed into giant sculptures. History had its nostrils here, everywhere it breathed. The _suurihmot had been skilful architects, perhaps even obsessively had pressed their fingerprints everywhere. Ultimately the golgotha was achieved. At the side of a sleeping volcano, the grand city had been once dug. Even though a glimmering snowfield covered everything, now, the ancient lava's serpentine stripes could be seen in the stones that had their pale heads above the white feathers. Forest grew here and there, however mostly the steep hillside was bleak. As if the green plants had detested it._

The canoe was heaved up from the river, and set to lie beside a tree. A small camp was established as every night before: A little warm teepee, a bigger fire outside to keep the beasts away, and a minor one inside the hut to keep it snug. At it, the rations were roasted, and Yoka-hanen could go on with the legend-telling. 

--------------------------

"Uhh this place gives me the creeps!"

A dank, dusty stone hall echoed the whisper back. Some particles were wafted down from the commanding vault. A fire danced, making the stones wroth. Faces, frozen faces… statues, pictography. Suur-Kalevan's obsession. Self-importance, windiness. Although, maybe an imposing people were allowed to brag like that.

Yoka did not hear Buzz. She stood, back against, looking at one mural. It was bitter, wistful to touch this place. It reminded her too much of her destroyed freedom, as if she had suddenly become one with the deceased city. His cold yells… her father's ignorance… a trap for the little mousie that could not behave.

He did not see the hampered sorrow. The woman gulped the burning coals down, not willing to yammer it all out. She had the surmises furthermore… regardless the passed few days. A broken heart was not healed that fast. Here, in the shades of this forgotten place, the bizarre male would have his freedom to accomplish anything. Even leave her to turn to dust with the collapsing rooms.

So had the couple crawled inside the mysteries. Yesterday had been just mere wandering along the wide hillside, getting stumbled to stones. Lightyear had been growingly interested in the erosion-revealed houses she had detailed. Exactly why, he did not know. Perhaps compassion of willing to know about her curiosities, or then some zeal towards the tens of tales he had put her blabber. Yet, under there was also some other pip squeaking. The Suur-Kalevans had known technology, no doubt of that any longer. Conceivably similar kinds of things he was accustomed to in his modern existence. Somehow familiar things kept jumping in the metrical cantos. Associations, assumptions, strange nets of neurons… maybe the windy coolness here had vented the last aspergilluses out of his pate. Who knew, maybe, but just _maybe, he might find something __aid in here…? E.T. had phoned home, before. It was not trapped on Earth till its passing. And so had Buzz still a frail hope, although it was definitely not the main thing here. Just a side thought… maybe to find something that could help him to contact his world? Yet, the principal claim was to make __her feel delight. To do something she had wished._

This day had opened again with roaming. Yoka-hanen did not remember past the years, so the original building she had lurked in as an adolescent, was never located. The erosion presumably had tucked it up again, or then it was swallowed by the snow. Nonetheless, towards the noon, this place was found. As they had sat down at the roots of one larger tree, on one of those rare, more fertile spots of the hillside, abruptly a gap had been revealed. Buzz had almost fallen in it, as taking a comfortable pose by leaning his back against a steady-looking rock. A thick pine's root had bypassed it from above, and a little snow cover had made it a form. But as his wide back had touched it, the whiteness had deceived, and a hole was behind there. No doubt, the 'steady rock' around it belonged to a wall, and the crude redwood had made a rift into it. Knock, knock, knock… a gate inside the secrecies was unlatched.

Yoka remembered that she once had padded along some chambers that were for everyday living. Or so she had years, years ago speculated. This was… something else. Lightyear's suggestions teetered around civic centers and museums.

Two hours had passed, before the present hall was reached. A zigzagging wondering-tournée had been directed leftwards, towards the bare bank. The crack had been a roof corner of some room, so with a rope the intruders had slid themselves down. Almost empty spaces ahead. Strange metallic cubicles decorated the ceiling line everywhere. Dust, dust, dust… chappy flooring tiles, partly collapsed structures. Every wall was supercharged with carvings. The hidden windows had a lava sealing. Still, amazingly well the entity had survived. Regardless that the _Purkaus had been the end of one grand civilization._

"Craters, why does it always have to be wandering in corridors?" Buzz made a chuckle. The ambiance had transformed into an agonizing silence. "I mean, this is not the first time I've been in adventures. Planet Z had always shadingly purple tunnels, then I remember I visited another galaxy… and even there were tunnels! Though… they were very messy and icky. But I guess it's sort of a cliché. Well…" His forced smile curdled. She did not answer anything. Just stood there back against him, staring at that one effigy. So on a quarter ago, this immense hall had been achieved. Its purpose was unknown, but every inch of the wall space was setting a scene for stone figures. There were tiny ones and those reaching several meters. All they had their emotionless faces looking at the middle floor. The single lantern he held in his hand, could not exhibit but a fraction of it at once.

Softly his footsteps thudded in the acoustics. Her thin shadow stood still on its spot. The captain tried rising on his toes to catch her expression, but blackness devoured it. Yet, he could envisage the heavy-heartedness. He set the light on the floor, wined his arms around her from behind. His cheek was left to rest on her shoulder.

"What are you thinking?" A practically mute question.

"I am… thinking… I do not know, Proud Crescent." Her pose did not turn about to meet him. However, over her anconal he could peep at the target of gazing. She had stagnated an eternity in front of this lifeless stone. It pictured two persons, a young woman with an elder man. Pondering… was this some kind of metaphor for her? Lightyear sensed very well that she was roving in her illusions. Did she see herself in that similitude? Whatever it was, those dreams were not about flowers and sunny fields.

Yoka-hanen held back a tiny tear. Yes, maybe she saw herself in that form, somehow. But mainly it was the spiritless lapidary that cast a gloom. In front of it, she considered herself as a failure. A woman, who had failed in everything. Things were expected so much, but what could she fulfill? Then, insecurity. The statue at least had a guardian, the rocky girl did not need to stand in unsafeness.

Obviously the space ranger perceived the timidity, what was under it.  "Maybe we should go on. I see that you don't like this room."

Yoka felt stinging in her nose. He wanted to go deeper into this deadness? But who was she to complain? She was made to follow her owner, in any case.

More fusty parlors. Stairs. Some were blocked by slips, so that other passages were needed. And still no principle for this solitude. Maybe these lounges had contained something, but probably before the doom, someone had had time to carry away the valuables. No mouth was there to tell. There were occasionally seats, half-decayed curtains made of some very strong fabric, and always those cubes going along the wall-ceiling junction. More statues. Yet the mood achieved some lightness as Buzz started joking about those stone figurines. He actually could make her even smirk with a tale about his friend, who was so egocentric that wanted to decorate everything with his face on it. Hearingly this popinjay had effigies of him in some athletic poses all around his mansion –whatever strange word that was then.          

One corner-turn was behind. Both Yoka and he winced a little. A bright ray of sunlight shone through a petty chasm in one upper wall. Erosion had brought this building even more out of its tomb. 

"You know, then there's my father." Buzz went on with his small talk. "He's not putting his mug everywhere, but has other kinds of obsessions. He's maybe becoming a bit doating…"

What the jesting captain had not noticed, was that the floor under his heavy gaits was rifting. Perhaps the centuries' pressure had made it crunchy, and when a man possessing over a hundred kilograms of weight padded along it, it could not cohere. One more stride, and a nasty rustle chimed. The tiling shattered, and he began falling.

"Look out!" Yoka left a shriek, prostrating herself at the split's edge.

"AAAAAAAHHHHH!" his aghast shriek deafened her ears. The floor had vanished, dropped into a sable abyss. She still could see his hand, falling… a crude monster or not, she would not let him disappear inside that havoc. Spasmodically, her arms jerked forwards, her fingers extended themselves towards the pale hand…

…to be continued…


	13. Third reprimand

"AAAAAAA!" Buzz yelled, as he was to fall in the unknown dusty darkness. On the last picosecond, Yoka's strong hands snatched his arm, and put him to hang above the gaping chasm. His heavy body was too much for her to drag for too long; already her wrists and articulars tingled with pain. Lightyear found a grip of her arm with his fingers, and pushed himself up. Snap, and his other hand had found the edge of the fallen floor. Ripping him still up from his other upper limb, she partly helped him out of the hole.

"Owowowow…" dementedly he trembled for a few seconds after the initial shock, sitting on his knees on the grubby tiling. He wiped sweat away from his forehead, and resembled a dog that had just received a cold shower. Yoka in her sudden nervosity found him so silly-looking, that did not even consider what she reeled off. That man who thought he was the center of the universe, had needed her help _again? Her chaffing laughter reached him._

"Haha, how many times do I still have to save the proud, proud Proud Crescent?" She started amusedly humming some folk song that told about a man wrestling with a bear. And to be even more teasing, she wrapped her sleeve up, showing him her bicep like some bodybuilder.

A twinge sharply cramped Buzz' heart. Pride… he was proud. He had been too proud to abide the fact that she had saved him from tricky situations. Things he should have been able to handle as a crafty space ranger. But what he had for his misfortune only goofed up. He felt himself lying wet in the pond again, hearing the impish giggles of the woman hunters in his ears. That mocking, mocking, mocking… However, under that bitterness foamed something else. That emotion reflected from his burning gaze.

Yoka winced under that soul-piercing fervor. Retreating towards the wall, she doubtlessly regretted now her little lampoon. His anger had resurrected, was it not so? What could she expect from this half-unknown man?  Him beating the living birds out of her, amidst this abandoned place? "I… I did not mean to…" she apologized.

"You didn't mean _what?" He began approaching her, the odd blaze in his pupils. She was soon closed in an arresting corner. The next seconds passed as in a slow-motion movie. In a bit of an unmannered way, his large fists closed themselves around her upper arms, setting up a good grip. The stern flare in his pupils was aimed splittingly at her for a few fractions… that stretched up to illusive hours. Now, would it finally come? The moment when her last squeak was taken away? Yoka's own yelp was cricket's chirr in a sewer._

"I did not mean to be mean, p-please do not hit me---" Her cry died abruptly. Black. Then a sense that the inhales did not reach properly her lungs any more. A flash of those gleaming irises. Then, a wakening. She found herself almost horizontally in his arms, pinned so that she could not move. A deep, hard kiss on her lips had suffocated her plea. Taking then some distance to her, he exhaled, "That's for the bears." Another similar attack, and a line for conclusion. "And that's for the refreshing swim in the pond." Next, a third assault. And this time he was not to let her go at all, but just kept and kept on fondling her lips with his ones. Her abrupt fear had turned to listless shuddering, and he was fully content with the result. No resisting, no pushing him away. Resting in his hold, she seemingly enjoyed his heavyish kisses, now. This was only the second time he had dared to touch her lips, but its effect was as expressive as at first.

"And, that's for the falling floor." He finished his repartee, his smile fourteen parsecs wide. "Thanks. Thanks for saving my life."

A delivering relief filled her lungs. She did not pull herself up from his lap, but just lied there for a moment. It was relaxation after the startle, or… no, there was something else too. A weird sense of safety sneaked along her nerves, as if he truly _cared for her. If he would have wanted to finish her off now, he had done it. Smack, and it could have turned all to murk. However instead, a second one of __these… But could it be possible that he would… care for her? The few elapsed days were just a bubble in the ocean compared to the three weeks she had been under the pressure. Being now encouraged by his surprise, she took comfort to make him one frank question._

"You… you _do__ not hate me?"_

His mien saddened. Taking her head between his palms, he whispered, "I never have hated you. No. I… how would I explain this… Blast, I find no words. I never find words when I should tell you something. I have been stressed out, fearing I'd never get home, never get to… umh… defend the universe, fight the evil. Well I told you, what I actually do in my own world. A few days ago you made me open my eyes. I've been… careless, selfish, _proud. Above all, too proud. Too proud to see the others around me, as I've only been keen on to think about what __I want, and how __my things have gone upside down…" Sighing, he softly put her deeper under his arm. "I'm glad you're here with me, now. Finally you can understand what I say, how I try to apologize my behavior. I… I've always used to be the center of attention. Well, here I have been it, and that made me even prouder. I don't actually fully even understand my motives to be so arrogant, as I think about it now…"_

"You are s-sorry? Really?" she uttered demurely.

"I am… I am sorry. Sorry for everything I ever have caused you. Craters, if I'd think myself in your place, I'd possibly have completely broken down." Shame made him hide his face under his palm. "I… I thought… you and your father had made some kind of conspiracy against me to keep me jammed on this planet… craters, how could I have been such an idiot? And I neglected your needs, by being impolite, nagging, yelling. Of course it's not your fault, if… you have different traditions as we in the Galactic Alliance. I… I don't still know what to think about all this. I miss my home, I miss the people I've used to see around me. I don't know… maybe… maybe I still have to spend some time over here, maybe I never see my home. But, for Zarah and Mira and everyone it would be a shock, if they could never return…"

It was quite much of a different experience to comprehend his speech, than just attempting to foretell his mood from the tone of his voice. Every sentence was glassy clear, so full of regret. Yet, it was burdensome for her to see how he would immediately transform to another person. To the Buzz Lightyear he normally was. Although Star Command was his obsession even in the everyday course, into too bombastic measures it had swollen during his stress. And she could not know, what kind of voyages he had hiked on the dark side.

"I promise you, Yoka, that I… I never ever treat you like that any more. I don't know if you believe me after this all, but I hope, I wish and I beg." A sigh, then his eyes flew open. What was the nasty word that had spun around his subconscious and had not extruded before? _Hit? Hit! That it was. In her sentence before he had started to caress her lips. An ice-cold scythe cut through his stomach. Did she still think he was __violent? Still she thought that… although he never had raised a fist to mar her. Gulping he pressed his forehead against hers. "Y-yoka… I need to ask… __why did you think I was going to… __hit you?"_

She only stared back, frightened due to this anxious inquiry. What could anyone respond to that?

"Please… I never, ever would hurt you like that. Although I was a piece of trash, I didn't ever hit you, did I?"

"No…"

"So… if you'd wish to believe me… please don't think that I'd hit you. Moreover…" The harnesses of his patience cracked. Her soft, thick lips were too close, open a bit because of the confusion. His mouth melted together with them, into a deep kiss. No, he did not understand why his mind demanded him to squeeze her again in his arms, but so sweet it felt, it was so nice to _comfort her. Comfort? Just comfort? Or way something else…? He just could not figure out._

A few more moments he made her lull in his lap. Fondness… she had saved his life, that was the final verdict. Maybe the third time announced the truth, like the old adage chirped. The two first cases had been broiled under his jealousy. But now, he realized, and would pay even the compound interests.

However, the gap in the floor allured. It was not a bottomless pit, the echo of a dropped rock told it. What kind of mysteries would it twine inside itself? The rooms this far had not renounced quite much about the ancient wisdoms. But how about this one? What would this one present?

Some kind of archeology-enthusiasm had bitten Lightyear, and hard. He was as intrigued like a kid, who thought a peculiarly-shaped rock to be an erstwhile arrowhead, or every fragment of glass to be a piece of some age-old crystal cup. Hence, with Buzz' rope, the couple tardily descended inside the blackness, a lantern illuminating the way. The bottom was achieved in time.  

The musty, old air itched in Buzz and Yoka's nostrils. A couple of sneezes were required to get used to the mouldy smell. The light's flames danced ghostly along the yellow stone, not revealing the whole space.

"We're again in some kind of big hall, or something", Buzz surveyed around. More carvings and murals in the walls, and high up there, more cubes. In Lightyear's mind, they had started resembling lamps that were out of electricity.

"What are those? They're everywhere."

"I do not know. The ancestors knew things we do not know."

"Hmm… just wondering… let's go and see what's there", he pointed with his finger towards the shades.

"Is it wise? What if the room collapses?" she reasoned. As a woman used to open nature, and free winds, she abhorred closed, saturnine cavities. 

"I'll take that risk. I just want to know where we have landed."

A walk began. It indicated that the drop had not brought the couple to a chamber, but to a tunnel. So, more guffaws for the Captain. It went on deeper inside the mountainside, the cube columns wearing above them. The architecture was firm, with no sign of landslips anywhere. But a concave crackle under Buzz' boot made him out of the blue jump up.

"Craters! What did I step on?" he cast his eyes on the floor, and met the hollow eye sockets of a grimacing, mummified scull. "Eeekh!" He jumped twice as higher, his hackles up.

"Ancestors. You stepped on a frail bone." She calmly glanced over the space like nothing remarkable had happened, "When the giant _Purkaus began, they obviously became trapped here, and died."_

The Captain looked disgusted at the macabre landscape. Some day those several carrions had been full of life, but had withered maybe to the loss of water. Some of them had still intact clothes on, made from colorful canvas. In the dry air, they had been preserved like the dead in Egyptian pyramids. He was to shoo Yoka away from the body of a male, which was lying half-sitting against the wall. She was fumbling the fabrics of its garments, and had picked up something it had squeezed in its bony hand.

"No, no, uh, don't…"

"No what? Are you afraid, Proud Crescent? They are dead. They can do nothing to you or me. As a little girl I was afraid, but an adult sees the life with wise owl's eyes." 

He grimaced, scratching his neck. He really did find it somewhat gross to examine a mummy just like that. And more he gulped, when she brought him the objects she had taken from the ancestor. "Look, Proud Crescent. I found something interesting."

"What's that?" Buzz took the greenish, metallic apparatus from her hand. It looked like a small staff, and had two curved cruses in the other end.

"Look, I press this circle and it spits out blue fire", she took it back, and fingered a button-looking extension in the handle. An electric charge caused a zap between the protruding appendages. A bluish flame flickered a split minute.

"I don't believe it… Do you know _what you took from him? How… how can this still __work? How long time did you say it was from the days of the great __Purkaus?"_

"Fifty-three thousand six hundred seventy-eight revolutions of Moon _Sammiokuu."_

His inner calculator did not match the different chronologies. Whatever it was, it must have been hundreds, maybe thousands of years ago. But what she held in her fingers, was a functioning high-voltage switcher.

"Phew… your ancestor really did have good batteries. But, but…" a comprehension flew in his head. They had found an effective electric device! This meant that the cavern where they wandered might hide even more surprises inside it! What if this… what if this rare finding would even turn out to be a benefit for Team Lightyear?

"Uh, you better give that thing to me. That light must not be touched, it could kill you. Just wondering its purpose…" Taking her hand gently in his own, he encouraged her to pursue deeper, towards the black throat.

After enough of promenading, the pass ended, but not to a blind alley. It widened up to an immense hall, to a _parking house, if that definition could be used. Buzz and Yoka's jaws hung open, as the torch flare shook a leg among the dusty lines of __vehicles. Or at least that they looked like. The mood was homely like in some Capital Planet's parking lot. The thunderstruck man tiptoed to the first looming chariot. A roofless, wheelless, metallic wagon it was, shaped to the figure of some kind of bird. It had four seats inside it, whereas the bird's head arched into a console. Under the flukes were two pipes, as if jet reeks would escape that way. Yoka-hanen behind his large shoulder leered suspiciously at the odd cask._

"It is _Kokkolintu", she noted._

"Cuckoo…a what?"

"_Kokkolintu, a mythical bird of thunder and fire. It metaphorically symbolized volcano eruptions."_

"Umm… right. But I think this is some sort of a car."

"Khaar?" she primed her lips.

"Umm yeah. I think we fell into your ancestors' big garage or something. Because I think these things are vehicles. This place has somehow stayed intact under the chaos of _Purkaus."_

"_Vehicle? Does Proud Crescent mean we could __fly with this vehicle like Kokkolintu?"_

"I'm gonna find it out. But if your ancestors were geniuses, this weird thing might actually work after a little pause", he uttered, and jumped onto the front seat. In the golden glow of the lantern, he surveyed the fowl's brainpan. And, for once the pinions narked also in his cube. There was a movable stick for obvious steering, and a hole beside it… just proper in size for that rod Yoka had found. Curiously he stuck it in there, releasing at the same time an electric charge. And vroom! The whole vat shook, and some of the carvings on the birdbrain began glowing faintly green light.

"Whoo… well, craters, craters…" he left a dozyish chuckle. She had retreated against the wall, staring at the whole show with fright. The birdie looked like some ghost in her eyes, as it hovered initially a few inches over the floor line. Buzz patted merrily the seat beside him, asking her to jump in.

"No, no, I will not ride with Kokkolintu."

"Meh, bold, strong girls won't get scared that easily", Lightyear played with her prejudice. "We aren't chickening out now, are we?"

She narrowed her eyes. "I am not _chickening out! Proud Crescent can keep his teasing words!" Taking a springy leap from her spot, she was with one jump inside the 'car'. He smirked cunningly back. Yoka looked comically cute, when she was angry but without tears._

"Alright, let's try this birdie baby!" he twisted the controller. Of course the Captain had not the tiniest clue how this kind of UFO would flit, but during his long career in Star Command, he had used to all kinds of conveyances. This could not be any trickier than driving a common speeder.

Buzz had to draw back his bragging, as he balancedly collided with the walls, other carriages and pillars, which were propping up the wide hall. Dust and smoke flew in the air, putting the couple cough and sneeze. But after ten minutes of bungle, the wreck stood firmly in the air, and Buzz could smoothly turn it to diverse directions. It was a cross between a hovercraft and a speeder, subsisting on with some unknown source of energy. So much petite it was in size that it could possibly fit through the floor hole further there.

"Shall we take a joyride?" he winked to the girl, whose head spun after the smashups. Accelerating abruptly, he directed the vehicle to fly along the long corridor.

"YIIIIIIII!" she squealed, as the spell of speed enraptured even her.

"Whee! I bet this can reach five hundred miles an hour!" Plunging up from the track, they were in the same room, where Buzz was to forfeit his days.

Obstacles ahead. There was nothing else hindering them from diving out into the sunlight, but a wall.

"Craters! And I kept already hoping we could get this wagon out of here!" he banged his both fists against the console. Frustration, of course. "If I would have had my wrist laser… or even Booster's laser with me, I could have sawed that blasted wall to salami!"

The speeder hovered steadily in the air. The man grated his teeth, smearing his minuscule forehead against a wide palm. Why was there such a silence? Crumpling, his regard met Yoka. She was tinkering with a knife, some rag, and flour-like substance, her flints loosened from the belt. The brown flour was poured, mixed, and wrapped to some kind of bundle.

"Umm… what are you doing?"

"Has Proud Crescent never heard of explosives? A great bang will be heard, and a forceful beast of fire and thunder breaks through everything", she tilted her head as if she was now enlightening _him with up-to-the-minute wisdom._

"You mean… you're doing _dynamite?" his back hair rose up._

"I do not know what is this dai-naa-mait you are telling me about, but Proud Crescent should know that we can blow up the wall and thus float out with the wind."

"But… but…" he was to keep some harangue about safety, but came to think of with what he actually bustled as a space ranger. Riding with Zurg's rockets… and now going to moan like a bagpipe because of someone using gunpowder? And she was with a good speed making sparkles with the firestones.

"Alright, I'll get ready to dash off with this, right when you throw the uhh… defuse, or whatever you call it. Let's just hope that we're not going to cause a landslide."

"Good." She picked up a leather sling, stood up and tossed the ignited explosive in the air.

To be continued…


	14. With the wind

Kaboom! Dust swirled as billows, little rocks clattered against the bird-transport. Sunlight suddenly blared eye-splittingly in front of the forwards-bolting couple. Buzz made a dive, accelerated, and the odd ancient car was out. A grained hole jutted in the rear.

"Haha! Great blazars, it worked!" he whooped, putting some more tempo on. The white mountain descend glimmered ahead like some slalom slope. "Hee!" a twist of the stick, and the willow tit went faster.

Something clicked in Yoka's brains. Was not that man just stuffed up with his ego again? He was so proud because he could steer this machine, was it not so? She always had the urge to tease, when noticing someone being very full of himself. Abruptly she rose up, not caring about the velocity. Jumping right on his spot, she pushed him aside, taking the controls herself. She had watched enough his bragging; now it was her turn.

"Yoka, what are you doing?" he screamed as he got his senses back. Laughing like a hyena, the crazy woman twisted and turned the pilot switches, getting fast the right touch. This did not feel after all any more complicated than riding with a runaway buffalo. The agitated man endeavored taking the command again, but she just pushed him back on the seat where she had sat at first. The speed had made her insane. It always took the last light of caution out of her. Stupid it was, disrespectful towards her own safety. But, craze gleaming in her eyes, she accelerated the vehicle.

"Stop! Stop it!" Buzz manically swung his arms in the air, trying to quit the headless show. Nonetheless, he lost his equilibrium as the budgie began swooshing down the mountainside, in a forty-five-degree angle.

"Yiiiihihiiiihihiiiiiiii! Ayayayayaaaaaaaah!" she squealed, pinching every horsepower out of the carriage. Buzz had ended up topsy-turvy, his head was in the legroom, and his legs swayed freely against the seat's backrest.

"Yoka! Stop, s-stoooop it!" his voice came muffled from under the console.

"Hiiihihiiiihihiiiii!" was her only answer. And so the speeder stopped short under her authority. So much slowing deceleration there was, though, that Buzz did not get squished. The hectic flight had approached the downhill's bottom. And her hyper-daft mood just went on. Buzz crept, shuffled and moaned, finally finding himself the right side up on the bench.

"Uhh… you _seriously need some driving lessons!"_

"I watched you drive. You drove like this. I only repeated what Proud Crescent taught me!" she whisked her head and put a pompous nose up.

"Why you little… well I'll teach you how to drive!" he half-jokingly tried lunging towards her, but Yoka's quick reflexes allowed her a nippy escape. Bouncing over the hull, she was already horse-laughing meters ahead.

"You come here and now!" The man hopped after her, but the sinking thaw snow made his traipses heavy.

"Hahaha! Proud Crescent is stuck! _Rati__ riti ralla, tuli talvihalla…"_

But his big feet were after all good as snowshoes. He took a quick run, and was to pin the girl in his hold, but Yoka-hanen had other plans.

"Ayyyaaaaah!" A cry, and her hands grabbed the firm tree branch above her. With one move, she swung herself up to sit on the high branch. There she squatted like a squirrel, guffawing.

"Now, be a good girl and come down!" he stood down there hands on hips, a half-smirk on his face. This was so absurd that he could not even be annoyed.

"Does Proud Crescent like snow?" a strange question was posed. The teasing woman gripped a tuft branch from upper there, and shook it. A big, wet pile of snow plodded down, straight onto Buzz' head and shoulders. In a nanosecond, he resembled a sputtering snowman. But, he was not mad at all. Although this was the purest Yoka-hanen, just the characteristic that had irritated him in the first place. The playful mocking, putting him underdog. However, the girl up there started feeling a bit afraid, not having the courage to come down. Maybe she had been a bit too rough…? This was after all her owner, who had according to the Kalevan laws full control over her.

Lightyear had survived from the snow invasion. "Now will you come down from there, you stubborn bugger? It's getting late, and time for a snack. And I bet you're hungry too."

"No, I will not come down."

"Fine, stay there, then! I'm going to put some food on."

An hour went, and Yoka was still sitting in the tree. Buzz had 'parked' the finding right beside the camp's teepee, and was pottering with his own chores. The dusk fell, and obviously no more explorations would be done today. It was getting a bit nasty on the branch. She was hungry like a herd of piranhas, and the weather cooled fast. But, as said, she regretted her idiocy. She would jump down and… what then? Assumingly receive a reprisal. 

Some soft footsteps approached. The male popped abruptly under the tree, munching a piece of pemmican. In his other hand he had a plate.

"Be a good girl and come down! Of course you can sleep in the tree if you want, but I believe it's gonna get a bit chilly. Lookie-look what I got here!" he winked and raised the dish, "Nice, warm food! Here, kitty kitty kitty!"

Well, the Kalevan could not slumber inside the plant. She decided to take the risk and come down. Although it felt quite perilous. A somersault down, and something attacked her immediately. Although Buzz had been so easy to fool in the first place, the crafty space ranger inside him had disappeared nowhere. An old arresting trick worked perfectly, and the struggling girl was dragged under an umbrella-looking tree. He jerked one lithe twig down, and the whole snow cover of the firs splat over them. Although the captain was again a jack-the-frost look-alike, he was even. The original joker had at least five times more snow covering her.

Back in the camp, Yoka-hanen was after all very dumbfounded. The day's happenings had brought just more and more hidden features out of Buzz. He felt _no antipathy towards her, although she had done a prank almost similar to the jauhajokottaja-ride? Moreover, he just seemed increasingly gentle towards her. After the snow bath, a warm blanket had been wrapped around her, and a platter of steaming hot nosh pressed in her hands. A cozy fire crackled in the teepee's front floor._

"Alright, you twit, I'm driving tomorrow. We're gonna show off and fly back to Kaleva with that speeder. Well… who'd have thought that Suur-Kaleva provided this kind of archeological findings?" he gnawed his pemmican and made plans for the following day.

"Are we going to leave tomorrow?"

"I think that would be the best, regarding to what we have found. Namely…" Lightyear picked up the voltage recharger from the floor, twisting and turning it. "This may be my way home."

She tilted her head. What was he talking about? Nonetheless, for him the meaning was clear as distilled water. About a week ago, the last report of XR had been given to him. According to Zarah, the robotic ranger might get the sparkle of life back with a forceful voltage pulse. The poor fellow had just remained out of electricity, while his circuits began being somehow amassed. A zap, and perhaps… perhaps he could get revived with the aid of _this. The widget the Captain so keenly turned over. If it provided power even for a whole car, why not the android? It worked in a low electromagnetic frequency, so much ex-Zenith's minuscule brain cells recalled from the Gate case. Thus he also tried to give a lecture about his ideas to his mate, who just merely shook her head. Kalevans could galvanize, but there ended the knowledge about electric phenomena. Although Yoka comprehended almost nothing, for him this was a little whoop of victory. Eager to try the conception, he had decided that Suur-Kaleva would be left. Well, always they could return again, he reasoned._

---------------------

Golden candles did not warm the rooms on Capital Planet. Zurg, Warp, and the rest of the missing persons' relatives weltered in their silent sorrow. Time flied by, with no glimpse of hope. What had swallowed forty-two? Another galaxy? Or an evil timewarp that had thrown them to the first minutes of The Big Bang? Hopeless, hopeless…

One ex-majesty was a dejected shadow of his true, rather ludicrous self. A bitter impression he had clinging in his heart; that his son was ultimately gone. Dead, or at least dying. This obscure sensation had gradually captured his awareness. He believed paying now with a hard hand all the cruelties of his past. But why, why such a prize when he had with efforts attempted to reform?

And Warp, an alike shady form he was. The food did not taste, the nocturnal dreams were all unsettled. This did not of course affect well the little Ay'noh. The more the father was depressed, the more the child also suffered. Weeps burst out every there and then, and daddy did his best to comfort… but usually it was futile. Mom was gone, nothing was there to draw a no-sign over that fact.

Commander Nebula writhed in his own troubles. A legend had just suddenly vanished; Star Command was not itself without Team Lightyear. Throughout the Alliance, lookups were made. Rangers delivered 'Have you seen this person?' –papers nearly everywhere. Trade World was of course the anthill's core of questioning. Among that mass of scum and cultures _might always be someone who knew… nonetheless, that individual was not bailed until this day. The hope seemed to rain down by every means. King Nova had left a warning for the Alliance Senate of his planet's resignation from this Galactic union. Perhaps the old monarch had gained a bit sense into his blue head, since he had thrown away the ideas of starting a war. His over-noble reign had no arsenals against the Alliance; it would be his own doom. However, the possible separation was his protest against the low-browed space clubbers and their ineffective searching means._

Indeed, the time did not rush with the same wheels in Kaleva, as it did on Capital Planet. One day life in this unknown civilization was two diurnals in the Alliance Core. So, what might had felt rather short a period in those virgin forests, was double-anguish elsewhere. Then again, the lost were not aware of the 'normal time'. Their digital timers had been either charred, battered, or lost their accurate digits in the tumble of excess-space.

_Tears…___

Mira, Zarah, and Booster had had their own circles in Kaleva, while Buzz went through his emotional ameliorating elsewhere. Actually, the loss of the wrist communicator had not much affected. Everyone mastered a few expressions and words in Sivakka, although the language was light centuries more complex than plain English. Of course, none kind of joy it was to goggle at the faster moon phases going by, with no tidings of happiness from beyond the solar systems. Zarah's moods changed from hour to hour, mostly being calm but melancholic. Gradually she had been obliged to accept the presence of this sentimental prison. Warp wandered in her dreams, hand in hand with Ay'noh. Conversely, the nights were sedated. Her loved ones were safe, though thymogenicly walking along a black road. But how could she had seen the pain someone experienced because of her, somewhere immeasurable distances away? Mira remained perhaps the calmest of them all, finding ways to forget her own grief. Who knew, maybe the weeks here would eventually stretch to half a year… and through that, to a lifetime. Who knew…?

_Don't__ say goodbye… don't say I didn't try…_

_Tears…_

------------------

_"Se lentaeae!"___

_"Se on lintu!"___

_"Ei vaan Teraesmies!"___

_"Pulun pyrstoestae tulee tulta!"___

Shrieks. Yells. Yelps. Wide-flown eyes. Fingers pointing towards the settlement's edge. Something faster than wind approached the fear-struck village road. Some women dropped their brushwood, running scared away. Fire blazed, and a hysterically delighted squeal breezed along the dashing bolt.

"Yiiiihhhiiiiihiiiihihiiii!" There was something very familiar in that hyperactive whoop. Some elder men stopped, shaking their heads. That noise belonged to the chief's daughter. Some of her tricks?

Well, not exactly. It was Buzz, who drove this time. The traveling couple had just whirled back home, with their new shiny transport. It worked like a dream after its long sleep inside the lava capsule. In a few hours the forests were surpassed, whereas normally it would have taken days to hike back. Though, in the cold fighting wind, the couple had had to set all their furs and pelts over them. The great git had no covert whatsoever, so it was like driving an ultra-fast cabriolet in the deepest winter. 

The fire ceased coming from under the birdie's flukes, and it steadily landed on the common square, in front of a big statue. A swarm of baffled natives, who had noticed the familiar figures, pattered to achieve them.

Mira was one of the rushers. She had just left _suuremo Louhi's hut, and had literally been ran over. Collecting her heavy hems, she had scampered towards the UFO, initially ploughing through the nearly eight-foot-tall gogglers._

"B--Buzz? What's going on here? What's this thing?" she emerged from the crowd, colliding with the speeder.

"Oh, hi, Mira!" he put a hand up, "Greetings from Suur-Kaleva! We found a lost empire and some of its wonders!"

"Wha-- But you were flying! How…?"

Buzz loosened the voltage charger from its slot, and waved it in front of Nova's nose. "You know, we found the ol' magician's wand! You can pull a couple of rabbits out of a hat with this!" He smugly made some reporting about the travel, putting everything to spin around the staff. "This might be our change, too. Didn't Mrs. Darkmatter say XR needed electricity?"

Right at the moment the hasty discussion was cut short. Five men with lances cleared their way towards the artificial fowl.

_"Ylpeae Kuu! Vainamoisen puheille heti! Ja Sininen mukaan!"_

_"Suuri johtajamme tahtoo tietaeae mistae taeaellae on kyse!"___

Mira had just the time to catch the sentences. She had carefully detached the wrist communicator from Yoka's arm after checking out it was without scratches. Nevertheless now there seemed to be a trouble of some kind. Also Lightyear's visage had darkened.__

"They want us to go to see the chief!" The jumble out there had reached the leader, putting him to make certain assumptions. The short lord had returned from his secret journey. With his daughter. And she would be the one to make the first clarifications.

"_Typerae__, kuriton lapsi!__ Kuinka monta kertaa minae naeen sinun vielae loukkaavan herraasi?" a fierce yell echoed in the Council tent._

"_Kunnioitettu__ isaeni, minae…" a pair of grey eyes pleaded._

"_Tarpeeksi__ olen kuullut voivotusta, mankumista suustasi! Karkoittaako minun sinut taeytyy Kalevan kankahilta? Mutta koska olet toisen miehen oma, en voi sitae tehdae." The old Vainamoinen fizzled with bile. Yoka-hanen in front of his anger dolefully bowed her head. Ah, the dishonor, the dishonor. What had the naïve child done again? Had disturbed the rest of Suur-Kaleva, the place where no one was to step any longer. How obnoxious a deed this was in the old chief's eyes! Had he not warned his daughter already enough, warned not to show disrespect? And worse it was, that even Proud Crescent was mixed up with the scandal._

"You stupid, misbehaved child! Was it not enough that you came to dishonor me because of complaining about your new owner? I had enough in that already! I was not willing to hear anything like this any more!" the rasp was flaming, a wrinkled hand shaking a cane in front of the girl. "And now, like a rebellious condor, you have dishonored even your owner by tempting him to enter the Silent Lands? How dare you, you…"

However, never could he finish the damning, never that angered palm of his hit its target. Vainamoinen found Buzz standing right in front of Yoka-hanen, tapped there to hinder the fight. His crumbled brows told that it was his turn to hold forth.

"Honorable Vainamoinen, please don't shout at my property." Oddly archaic terms left his lips. "I have accepted your gift, and according to your laws I am the one who does the reprimand, if needed. And it was my idea to visit Suur-Kaleva."

The Head's eyes flew open. This was definitely something not expected. A surprise shocking enough to make his wizened being to search for support from the handrails of the throne.

"You did… _what?"_

"Please do not blame your daughter, honorable Vainamoinen. I know I have done a certain kind of mistake by breaking the Silence, but I wish you would listen to me."

Lightyear's sophisticated, but decisive oration put a gag over the chief's mouth. Again Yoka's inferior position as a Kalevan being shone through. She did not have power to make his father mute. Now, however, the scene had turned upsy-daisy. The Captain surely felt himself a little confused in the very middle of all the astonished ocular pairs. Vainamoinen's piercing stare in front of him, his scion's baffled goggle behind him. The _viisaat had quit their rune singing, playing, letting the whole teepee fall into silence._

And so he spoke, pouring out every single notion and idea he had stapled together last night and before that. He told swiftly about the adventures, the 'revolutionizing' findings. And that the ancient metropolis was only partly destroyed. The presentation was expanded to a world-embracing lecture about freedom, sagacity, full of little –but efficient- clichés.

"So although you regard it as a silent place, you value wisdom, don't you?" he went on arms flying expressively in the air. "You could perhaps recover at least partly your ancient wisdom, if you entered the city, would explore it, find out _what it hides inside itself. Craters, we did discover, and I don't regret it at all. I don't know yet, but perhaps I've found a way to aid myself, but think about your chances! In the best case, your whole developed civilization might rise up gradually again, maybe into levels the ancestors never achieved! Of course, it's you who is there to decide, honorable Vainamoinen, but also I know you're a wise leader. So, after all it would be the best of your people if you would let the bygones be bygones, and try to revive what is left. The… Silence is not needed any more."_

His tongue ceased. The spit in his gums seemed to have utterly dried. Buzz was not a master of rhetoric, but a master of action. Thus, as the deadly silence fell upon the candle-lit teepee, he felt a bit lost. His wife beside him could not either utter a syllable. Sheer confusion had again struck her, pulled the carped away from under her feet. That weird man had just _defended her in front of the most esteemed person of the village? Dared to oppose her father because of… her?_

So was also the verbal dominance taken away from Vainamoinen. Initially steadily staring at the skyfallen, he perched on his throne.

"Very well, Proud Crescent." He nodded, surprisingly approving. "Proud Crescent has not spoken with a viper's tongue. His speech was guided by the wise owl and the sharp-eyed hawk. Wisdom is our first virtue."

Lightyear was nervous. This planet was truly strange. First Yoka had started to talk about just the same issue in her own language, and she was made voiceless. Not very at par. He needed to work as her megaphone before no one would listen? However, at this point he could not start keeping another world-embracing speech about equality. And besides she seemed to accept this since not knowing a difference. In addition, the chief rasped on.

"Suur-Kaleva has been the resting place of the _suurihmot__. I did not create the barrier around the Silent Lands; those were the __viisaat before me. However, wisdom will go over the silence…" the male stood up, mumbling something. The council sat doggo._

"You have given us so much already, Proud Crescent. I do not yet know, but perhaps this is another gift from you. Another well of sapience… thus… I should not be there opposing it, if you have seen it as the bliss of my brave people."

"Yes, honorable Vainamoinen, it will be for the best of Kaleva, if you could revive what your ancestors lost. I mean…" Lightyear tangled up somewhat again.

"Hmm, yes… I can draw the lines of your mind. We must break the barriers and go there ourselves. To see what is left." 

"Exactly, honorable Vainamoinen." 

The leader's mouth cracked into a wan smile. "Proud Crescent, if you had not assured me with your wise talk, I would have punished my disobedient daughter for this, perhaps even you. But now… I am drawing back my anger. You and your fellows from the clouds have been the bless of Kaleva again."

The Morphean grinned uneasily. Another slight head-off case. But somehow it irritated him, that Yoka was blamed nearly about everything. Directly it seemed to be her fault if something was wrong. He could feel the tension between the two family members, but not coherently. She never mentioned about her emotions with an utterance. Yes, it was a sacred issue for her, something that would never slip out of her heart. The mixed, sore sensations towards her respected parent. The woman stagnated beside Buzz, half-closed eyes wandering along the floor. He wanted to leave the tent. The atmosphere felt bitter.

"Honorable chief of Kaleva, I thank you for your kindness. I wish I could go now. I have to discuss serious matters with Mira… uh… Sininen."

He was let to leave. As his shadow slid out through the flap, the veteran sat back down. "And thank you for finally accepting my gift." A whiz so silent escaped from his wrinkled lips, so feeble that no one heard it.

Yoka-hanen's regard was dark. More complaints. When did she do the right thing? Where was her father's love, if it even existed? Vainamoinen felt so distant to her. The odd short man massaged her fingers with his big, pale hand, saying something. The last meters away from the Council tent she had walked in fog. Something needed to be done in Sininen's hut. Relating to the lightning staff. She pursued, a bad-tasting dollop in her throat.  


	15. Awakenings

Zarah sat alone in Mira's marquee, concentrated on some handiwork. Her little fingers laced string and some colorful stones together, while her brains processed far something else. Flowcharts about nanotube-based circuits fluttered around her cranial cavities. The synapses tried solving dilemmas, what to do, what to do… XR's metallic skeleton was gathering dust in one corner. The engineer had given her best efforts.

Somehow Choi was an outsider for the tumult in the village. She was not aware of Buzz' return, not aware that a triplet was with long strides diverging from the Council hut. The negotiations there were finished. The triad snatched one more person with them en route.

One pierced stone more from the basket… set up a knot with the _virkkuukoukku-stick. Lace the decoration… __Thud.__ G'Deneb almost jumped in the ceiling for shock. The tent's flap was violently tossed aside, and four aliens tumbled inside like hurried children into a schoolbus. For the second time, Buzz had proudly presented the ancient electricity-gimmick to Mira, causing a real eruption of excitement._

"Zarah! Zarah! Get up! Quick! We may be able to activate XR!" Nova shouted almost ear-splittingly.

The red-hair frowned, having her whole handiwork now messed up due to the abrupt frightening. The stone basket's inners were scattered messily on the floor, and she had almost stung her thumb with a needle. However, now the voltage recharger was slammed in her palms, with a jolt.  

"This was found in Suur-Kaleva! It's a functioning electric charger!" Lightyear began explaining. He, Yoka and Booster were the three others crowding the tent initially. "We just came back with a real speeder! I heard XR is out of power, but blast, here we got a solution, eh?"

But the technician just blinked her eyes, tossing her headscarf aside. Who, what, where? She was not following the situation at all. Thus, it needed explaining, and a lot.

A doubtful hack then croaked from her throat, after the hullabaloo-presentation of four creatures speaking at the same time. She switched on and off the staff, furrowing. "Eh… it's not really _that easy as you might think. This is a voltage charger, but… it says nothing about the voltage amounts. I can't test this anywhere. If I just go on smashing the robot with this, it might cause an over-response and put him into a worse condition!"_

"Umm… yeah." The three space rangers shifted regards.

"But do we have an alternative, Zarah?" Nova sighed, "This is our first and only hope this far. Although the chief possibly now lets people to go to explore Suur-Kaleva, they don't necessarily find anything there in a long time."

"It's just that XR has a very low electromagnetic frequency. If I go on striking him with an impulse too high…" the engineer shook her head, fumbling again the stick's round button. However, the crumble shifted to an airier mien, unexpectedly. A tiny discover was namely made. As she had let her thumb touch the charger's activator a bit lighter, it did not produce such a heated fizz, as primarily.

"No, could it be…" A test-run. "Craters, craters, quasars, whatever dim-witted space junk, it might actually work!" she quickly went into hysterics, bouncing up and dashing towards the mecha's graveyard.

"Did you see? DID YOU SEE! It varies the voltage's amount by how much the button is pressed! It might work!" she squealed and tore off XR's middle part lid.

Relieved smiles glowed on the rangers' faces. Luckily the age-old stick had had this function, since no one had paid attention to the possible wrong voltage levels. The frantic girl now ripped the half-standing android's wires.

The first blue lightning sizzled. A petty smoke cloud rose up. But, the poor tin can remained lifeless.

"Maybe he needs more stamina?" Another strike. And nothing. Not even an eye blinked.

Three, four, five… sweat began trickling down the rangers' necks. It was supposed to work, if there was nothing else wrong with their fellow than just the loss of electricity. Zarah bit her lips, drawing more coils out. Perhaps she had fixed the parts invalidly. Six, seven, eight, nine, ten… more tryouts.

"Stupid junk, work!" Choi's temper began pouring over. She was not really a hot-headed personality, but in situations like this, the over-broiling became evident. Grating her teeth, she banged the middle hull with a fist, at the same time squeezing the staff quite boisterously. The thumb hit fairly hard the button, causing an abrupt, raging voltage pulse. It must have broken some of the stick's inner dielectrics, since a good shock made Zarah exclaim in pain. Part of her hair electrified up in the air into a tangled red cloud.

But so did something happen in the robot, too. It trembled alone, hissing, buzzing, droning. A faint light at first ignited in his artificial eyes, then a brighter one. Recharging plucked his limbs back and forth a few seconds, then the android abruptly shot off high, yelling panicky, "AAAAAAAAH! We're gonna crash! We crash! AAAAAAAAAA! I crashed! System malfunction… System malfunction… beep, beep, beep…." As he reached the floor again, he looked around agitatedly. His last thought before the last smash had returned into his mind.

XR blinked. A jazzy collection of eye pairs stared at him baffled. Mira, Booster, Buzz, Zarah, some strange tall girlie… "Hiya, pals…" he waved his fingers, "Uh… I didn't crash? Or did I got a crush? Hey, what's going on? Have ya folks started a hippiedom 'cause you're dragging that kind of wonderland clothings?" The suede, fringes and fang-necklaces made him to become one big question mark.

Thankful smirks spread on Team Lightyear's faces. That was XR, if who. No doubt, he functioned finally. All the less or more irritating sarcasms were back in their slots. Booster did a happy dance across the floor, hugging then the android so that the metal cracked.

"Hot rockets! You're all right!"

"No, I don't think I am. I'm already missing a leg for a reason or another, and after this… ooof…" he tried pulling himself away from the Jo-Adian's clinch, who then put him willingly down, "Ugh, well at least after that I am wrecked."

When Buzz summarized the kaleidoscopic events, the android was one gigantic exclamation mark. "You mean I was rusting almost two months?" he stretched his arms, beginning to inspect if he had those nasty oxidizes somewhere. "Phew… and now what? We go dance a rain dance around the totem pole? Indians? Hooka-hey!"

"Nope, but you contact Star Command immediately!" Lightyear gave a guffaw.

"Why? Since we are in the great wide wilderness, couldn't we keep a good holiday instead? We could be just a couple of more days lost!" the mecha nagged.

Smoke came out of Zarah's ears. She hit his dome helmet with an oily rag, and with a deep chest-tone barked, "You stubborn pile of scrap! No more lolling around! Now put your capacitors rolling, and contact Star Command! NOW!" Wiping some hair off her forehead, she sighed then, "Uh… sorry. I'm a bit stressed out, I guess."

"Yikes!" the robot took some distance of her, "She'd _definitely need a holiday!"_

"Blast, just open up your comlink and contact Commander Nebula! We're been idling long enough."

"Hmph, why is everyone so tensed? They might have empty rest-home places on Rhizome… oh well." He opened up his wrist communicator, dialing a number. Everyone around hauled him, ready to go berserk if they would hear even a pip from outer space.

"Coming, Star Command? Ranger XR speaking! Heyodales, poppa, are you there…?"

At Star Command HQ, Commander Nebula was lazily going through some mission reports. A holoscreen with boring lines spread up over the Desk. The work tasted rotten in the middle of all the impatience. It was an early morning, and even black coffee did not bring the old man's vigor back. King Nova had called him at least three times today, giving new threats. "If I don't find his daughter, this and this and this and yadda-yadda will happen. Sweet mother of Venus, as if he was the pole of the universe!" he sulking leaned to his elbow. His comlink whined. Again those nag calls? Or was it Zurg sniveling about _Buzzy Boy?  No, it could not be he, since what he remembered, he was sitting in the Star Command's cafeteria. Fifteen minutes had just passed since his last questioning. That ex-emperor was just driving his living rockets nuts._

But Zeb was to hit his cranium against the ceiling, when he out of the blue bolted up from his seat. XR? _XR! That was XR on the other side of the channel! "Whawhawha---wha…. XR! Wha-- Where-- XR! __Where are you?  How…"_

"Hi, pops! Gah, you sound as burnt-out as the folks here…" the robot's voice turned distant for a second. "Emh… that's for my chatting. Buzz wants to talk to you."

"Buzz? Buzz! Craters, Buzz!" Zeb yelled his cake hole wide as a banana, "Can it really be _you? Alive! You can't possibly understand how worried we all have been here! Where are you? Are Mira, Booster and Mrs. Darkmatter all right?"_

"Heh, no need for panic." Lightyear's smile widened in the vidscreen, "They're all doing fine. Our all communication means have been functionless until now, otherwise we would have contacted you before. Just fixed the robot ranger some minutes ago. The first contact, heh… The main problem is that _we don't know where we are. Can you trace XR's signal?"_

"Uh-huh… craters, let's see…" the Commander began tinkering diligently with a quick-tracker he had embedded in the Desk's vidphone. "Hmm… getting indications, just a second… drat this wreck is slow… _Upsilon Quadrant…? What kind of wormhole has brought you to Upsilon Quadrant? It's mostly uncharted area!"_

"Wormhole, definitely. We got lost in hyperspace…", Buzz began the mantra again, while Zeb waited for the tracer to retrieve the electromagnetic waves through the ethers.

"Phew, Buzz, you've definitely gone off your course. I got the coordinates of some planet, but this one is without a name in our databases. Buzz, Buzz, Buzz, we're going to get you and the others out of there, now. But I'm afraid it takes some time before we get there."

"Don't worry, Commander. We won't disappear anywhere from here", Lightyear laughingly commented, "XR here was just requesting a holiday. He can now take a few days off. But let's keep the connections open. There's a lot of news to deliver."

"Ah, kid, guess what, your father is here! He… well he's been _really worried about you! Just a second, I'll get him online! I can go to negotiate with the LGM's while you have your family reunion."_

Buzz' eyes shone. Just one zap from that ancient device, and all the lines were open. And he had definitely missed his father. He had been worried? Would he appear in the screen with teary eyes? The Captain felt some kind of adolescent gladness that he was so cared. Some clatter was heard in the comlink, obviously a second person scampered inside Nebula's office. Buzz spruced himself up, and soon met his older reflection in the ether. 

"Greeting, Father!" he smiled.

Nevertheless, the figure in the vidscreen replied nothing. Zora's pupils were jagged as blades. They kept snooping Buzz from under his bushy brows. Not a hello they had screamed, not a welcome uttered. Lightyear's back of the neck sweated under that mind-punch. Zurg was angry, because of a reason or another.

"F-father? What's wrong?" 

"Son, have you been in the dark side?" came a direct question. The captain flinched.

"B-b-but… how… why…"

"You have been in the dark side, have you not? What have you done to your beard? I did not teach you to shape it like that", he snarled.

"F-father, h-how did you know? I…" Lightyear cowered and stuttered, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean…"

"I felt a great disturbance in the balance. I thought you were dead or dying. But I understand now that you were dying in another way. And what you once promised…"

The younger male felt terrible. Nothing could slip the Emperor's knowledge? He read his scion's face like an open newspaper, seeing beyond his subconscious. His long fingers tapped themselves together, and a sigh fled his lips. "So you made a trip back to the dark side. And I had so much trusted you… although…" a hand wandered to hide his brown eyes. "My fault it was. My fault it is. I was the one who once destroyed you, my Son…"

Split, split, splat. Now it was not Yoka that put Buzz' heart broken, but Zurg. He felt this sudden compassion even towards him, and would have dashed to hug him unless the screen and the distance had not been on the way.

"No, don't blame yourself any more. You saved me once and… now it was my time to… save myself. Father, I'm not… in the dark side. I guess I was, but I… fought back."

Zora's piercing goggle remained. "Did you have tha-grydda with you?"

"No, I… I said _I fought back. S-something made me understand I was… going back towards the darkness."_

"I am glad to hear that, Son." The old man nodded. "So what made you return? I can see it from your face that you have gone through very severe emotional disturbances. You did not have those grooves under your eyes before. You look older than you should."

"I… I'm sorry, but… I d-don't want to talk about it now…" Buzz felt his forehead turning crimson. How was he suddenly going to chant about _Yoka? Tell openly his dad how he had stumbled with his own pride and morals? The croaks were left glued onto his larynx and never came out. "Uh… I… I tell you later. But I'm all right, I promise. And firmly, now."_

"Also you promised last time. And what did I hear now?"

"But my _heart is changed! The evilness has left it, I can feel it!" he put his hands on his chest, pressing it. "You… you and Warp don't need tha-grydda! You… it's because your hearts have changed, isn't it so? That's why the dark side won't try to hunt you any more! But I… I said I fought back, and hopingly won."_

"Right…" the elder male fingered his cleft under his beard, "Hmmhooh… now there is the issue of getting you home. And I would like to hear what has happened and where you are. Ahh, Commander Nebula, the pathetic, fuddy-duddy hoary coot just came back in… uh, excuse me…" Obviously the Star Command's leader had heard the nicknames, since some quarreling was heard in the background. But in any case, soon the moustache-man poked the royal aside, assaulting the vidscreen.

"Buzz, you're still there? Blast, a bit of bad news. The LGM's measured the distances, and we ain't going to reach you guys just in a few days. It'll take a few _weeks to travel there with the normal ways! You have thrown yourselves so far away. As soon as possible, we'll set up some ships, and I'll come with. I want to see you with my own eyes. But as said, it's not gonna happen tomorrow."_

"Ah, that's okay", Buzz smirked. "I don't mind."

This relaxed commentary amazed Zeb. "But haven't you rangers been rotting there, in that village you told about, already several months UGT? I thought you'd instantly wanna rush into new missions and to defend the Galaxy! What's wrong with you, kid?"

Again, those irritating questions. The Captain could possibly not chitchat about this here in the middle of everyone. He would need time to think, to ponder. Snap, why not to launch a little stalking-horse? Well, it actually was not one, but a true issue. Lightyear had not eaten anything since the depart from Suur-Kaleva, and had his stomach roaring like an old battered engine. And… over XR's arm, there, a few meters further he met a pair of grey eyes. They were shiftless, full of confusion. There… there would be another reason to slide away.

"Ah, look, I… I just like it here. I don't mind if you come a little late. Just now… I got to go. I have something to do. But Mira and Booster and Zarah are here, you can discuss with them. And you might contact Warp. I think well… he might want to hear the news about his wife."

"Buzz! Wait! You can't…" Nebula shrieked on the other side, but noticed that the Kaleva-representative had turned to a Tangean. But even her regard was somewhere else, following some target at the other side of the tent.

"What's going on there? Sweet mother of Venus, for the first time in my life I hear that Buzz doesn't want to bolt to chase robbers? What…"

"He just left with some grrlll--umffff!" XR was about to slip some details, but Mira had pinned his garrulous maw with a finger-pinch. A fierce frown told that the mecha should stay quiet if not willing to taste a hammer. Nova had concluded that if Buzz did not want to narrate his extraordinary tiny story himself, no one else would do it. Besides, the robot had neither a clue what was rolling around, so he might distort the facts badly. And Buzz, he had vanished through the flap a gentle hand squeezing a smaller one. Warmth had sunnied his visage, so everyone knew to leave him alone.

"I think Buzz has done a peace with himself", Nova cracked a smile after him.

"What? What peace? What's going on there?" But Zeb was left without the further answer.  

Right on the same day, it was Zarah's turn to receive her important vid-session, too. Warp had been obviously contacted, since someone connected from a very familiar com number right to XR's wrist link. Definitely not en easy moment. The weeks she had bathed in her self-pity were revised in her mind, like some tragic, elegiac symphony. What had happened during her absence? Had anyone even missed her, after all? What, why, how… Her heart beating from toes to crown, she waited in front of the screen. The seconds pulsated in her vessels. Then, a familiar face appeared in the little virtual window. Its jaw clicked open, and it just stared there… alike she. Silence, gawping… twenty seconds of stillness. But, the expected over-mushy sniffings and sputterings actually never occurred. Warp picked his jaw up, pressed his big teeth together, and launched a satire.

"Now guess what? Yar Master is not pleased!" he shook a thick blue finger in front of her nose, "You're late, very very late. You were supposed to be sitting on my left knee and watching cartoons about…" he stopped to count with his scythes, "Well, drat, months ago!"

The sadness evaporated instantly away. She took a playfully angry expression, and tossed her nose up. "Well, mister master muster, you could've taken your shiny streamlined ultra-super-mega-fast ship and come to pick me up! Not my fault, if some rusty Star Cruiser can't stand space traveling any more."

"Hmph! But your Master is still not pleased! You come here at once so I can scold you better! Now, look, even the kiddie is mad!" he took swiftly some failed holo-photo of Ay'noh from his pocket, where the toddler had some absolutely beetle-browed mien.

"Pfih, you just have to come and get me first! Nah-nah-nah!" she stuck her tongue out.

"Uh-huh, I'll come and get you! No one escapes the clutches of Warp Darkmatter! Muwahahaha!" he stretched out his vulpine grin.

"Well is Darkie trying to be scary? Boo-hoo. I'm shuddering. Hmpft!"

Then the 'tender moment' of the two long-lost lovers turned to something idiotically sugary bill and coo.

Mira goggled stupefied in the background. In a breeze, the depressed, sulking woman had turned to a giggling, tittering goof? A highly-educated president of her own company? Bah. Moreover a mental pre-teen. And so had XR his comments to say. The redhead was namely all the time talking into _his comlink._

"Now I had to see the day that my arm was turned to some lovey-dovey hotline? Yick!" the robot grimaced. "I better give you my whole arm, so I can get away from the middle of the sugary clouds, pink fluffy bunnies and all the cooing doves!" He detached the body part and passed it to Zarah. "Here you go, but remember not to dump any honey pots on it! It's tacky enough already!" Not caring about his somewhat malicious utterance, she just grapped the loose limb and vanished into her own compartment of the tent. Obviously to talk nineteen to the dozen more. This had definitely been the day of splendid family events.   

Also the news reached Vainamoinen in a brief time. Sad it was for him that the grand brother would fly away, but it was expected after all. He had hoped… but so much were granted already, that according to him, Kaleva owed the skyfallen agelessly. But, Proud Crescent, Sininen and their servants belonged into their own worlds. Whatever then was there beyond the thirteen moons of this land. As Buzz formally came to announce him that a little fleet would be sent to collect him and his lost fellows, the chief answered with a pallid smile. The foreign visitors were welcome. And that it was Lightyear's own choice if he wanted to leave or stay. 

Thus the depart bells rang. A mighty alliance vessel, guarded by two Star Cruisers, rose up towards the raven highnesses from Capital Planet's surface. King Nova, Warp, Ay'noh, Zurg, Munchapper's family, and a division of space rangers took the initiative to fly and meet the mislaid, the missed. Commander Nebula shared also a cabin in the representative transport, leading the whole operation. Maybe his place would have been at Star Command HQ, but after the wail he wanted to meet his dearest friend Buzz from eye to eye, and give him a big, fatherly hug. But, there was also a not-so-pleasant issue casting a shadow over the long journey. Mira's father. From the first moments on, he had been excessively irritated to travel in a way like this, together with those lower than his 'divine' self. But also he had his aim, to bring his daughter back to safety.

Yet, the pacific intentions were somehow kept together in the same tub. Zeb was a skilled, austere order-keeper; he would not allow anarchy. True was, that a black hole would have sucked the diffuse harmony, if for example Nova had understood trekking together with the ex-evil Emperor Zurg. But, Nebula craftily commanded the lord to keep the izzards in the backpack. And the parsecs passed by.

---------------------

Back in Kaleva, the waiting began. Connections were kept hot almost round the clock, whoever then wanted to chat with whom. XR suffered from his yikes-attacks every other hour, when Zarah inquired to conquer the comlink and chirrup with her blue hunk and kid. Official and unofficial orders were given also back and forth. The robot sent a locator signal that the approaching ships collected, and followed it. The estimated traveling time varied between four and five weeks UGT, which in Kaleva meant about two and half weeks counted along Moon Reporukka's phases. Kaleva's chronology was very difficult to convert, since all the thirteen satellites the planet had, served as an own calendar. Mostly the everyday course was counted using Reporukka, but for human ages, important years and so on, there were parallel calculation methods. Nevertheless, every crash-lander had stopped caring about this except Buzz, who would have liked to know how old his wife was.

Definitely, Buzz Lightyear was the one who strangely isolated himself. Whereas Zarah, Mira, and Booster were constantly tweeting at the vidscreen, his shadow was barely seen. In Zurg and Commander's eyes he seemed alright, but there was something he hid. Indeed. Now, after a safe home-going was assured, he somehow would have wanted the days to go more tardily forwards. He wished he could have had more time to roam in his own thoughts, to ponder his new circle of life. _She… what would he do to __her? The tinkle in his heart got worse every day. Her presence was an obsession soon. Then again, how would he explain this to his father, or to Zeb? Or to anyone of his old friends? This far his tongue had been locked into a prison. Mira, or anyone else had mentioned nothing furthermore, only narrated about the odyssey in overall. The Captain could hold his little secrets if he wanted to be stubborn._

For Yoka, every day was another surprise. Although Buzz' giant ego was not even half swept away, there was nothing left from the yelling, cursing demon. There were strong, helping hands to carry the water buckets, wood logs, and do the snow clearing around the hut's basis. The girl gradually dared to be more and more herself, since no more damning flew over her crown. Then… Lightyear found it dumbfounding that he was more and more _attracted to the features in her he at first had considered so irritating. Although he kept knocking his forehead, lips primed due to pondering, his heart did not blurt out yet the answers. So he was kept in a silent dilemma of feelings. Why this now, when it had all started so chaotically?_

Furthermore the man's number one task was to countervail his nasty past actions. He had put into crumbs almost half of Yoka's more valuable possessions. Nothing could bring the dear memories back that had been enclosed in some of those shattered artifacts. Yet, he tried. Some new pot or decorated dish was put to squat on her table, almost every other day. Lightyear had gone to chat with some of the village's artisans, asking them to fabricate a few gracile haberdasheries for her. And he had also paid for them, by giving away a good amount of the jewels and tinsel the citizens had granted him.

A bigger project had been done with some seamstresses. Buzz still felt how nights ago soft linen had touched his hands, hovering next in the air in delicate fibers. And how pleasurable _she had looked that one day, her slim form clothed by the same silky flax. She had offered him a plate… and he had just scowled. Scornfully offended her. But later the image had returned to pester his retinas as some kind of daydream –as strange as it was. Yoka-hanen needed a new dress instead of the ripped one._

Hence, one day… his order was finished. A big packet under his arm, Buzz traipsed back to his home along the frost-hardened sand road. He buttoned shut the galaxy-wide grin, that almost forcibly drew his whiskers up. Hopingly she would like his gift. Hopingly he would be granted with that merry beam he so much nowadays was fond of. He tiptoed noiselessly in. Knocking the shoulder of the girl, he awoke her from her concentrated work. With a half-smile, the pelt package was offered to her, to be left under her puzzled nose.

"Me?" An utter came. Now what was this all about?

"Uh-huh", he nodded, pushing the not-so-light wrap into her arms. His simper followed the gestures of her fingers, as they unfolded the mystery. Her pupils turned to express sheer confound, as the inners were drawn out. Orange-maroon linen with suede additions slid in her hands, heavy and complex pictographic embroidery filling every spot of the canvas. It did not completely fill the quality of the demolished bridal gown, but almost, almost.

In every case, Yoka was moved. Lightyear could very well comprehend it from her timid-turned gaze. His fist appeared on her shoulder, gently stroking it.

"Would you… put it on? For me?"

"Putti-ton?"

"Uh… well… you know, wear." He gave some kind of semaphore show. Leading her to the dressing compartment of the tent –that was separated with curtains from the main room- he was left to wait then. A commonplace or not, Buzz wanted to see the results. As said, he had not detested her either when she originally had set up the tiny masquerade. Maybe the girl did not completely correspond to the traditional beauty values, but her exotic appearance still made his heart go jammed in the throat, well at least now. At least now when he examined his wife with a different point of view.

And so it was also when she coyly stepped out, the whole bedraggling flax formulation on. Yoka winced under his burning stare that had abruptly been shot towards her. Absolutely the _same gaze as in Suur-Kaleva. Yes, not the fire of insanity nor evilness, but far something else. That sapphire gape almost penetrated her, putting icy water run down her back. No words were blurted, only he approached her with a few steps. His hands slid themselves up along her back, those irises furthermore fixed straight towards hers. And that stroke of his warm palm… it put her stomach full of teeming bugs. Feeling a strange dollop in her throat, she with broken English attempted to inquire why Buzz was like that. _

As his response, he drew her down to sit on his knees, closing the unsaid sentence into an ardent kiss. Long he fondled her lips with his ones, and they reached her cheeks, even caressed carefully her neck a bit. His clinch was persistent, only tightening up when the minutes passed. Furthermore his tired, exhausted heart commanded him to offset the cruelties, to make her feel better… safer… cared. But just compassion it was not any more, under it bubbled a well of very other kind.

Yoka quivered under his every touch. Weak, tiny she felt as her narrow shoulders were burrowed into the squeeze of those massive arms. And he had said he did _not hate her… but __liked. But was this actually just __liking any more? And why was it for a strong female character like her to feel so absolutely frail beside him? She dared not to answer his kisses yet, but still let him do what he wanted. And alike in the lost city, he was elated since of her surrendering. But true was, that she enjoyed now his every single token of affection, their fervent softness feeling so sweet._

Later that day Zurg commanded his scion at the comlink. News. Some faster wormhole had been found, and the sleight ride would take no more than six days Capital Planet time. The Alliance space was far, far away, and even the bounds of the charted sectors had been crossed.

The Captain was also stung with all kinds of question-needles. Why did he have that ninny, priggish beam all the time on his mug? That had nothing to do with Zora's headlines, he could comprehend that. But his son stayed as a sealed pyramid, as mysterious and odd. Why did he even blush in front of his father? Had the dark side gnawed off even his last brain cells?

Whereas Zarah climbed the walls in exhilaration after hearing that her Master would arrive sooner than expected, Buzz just slouched away, hands in pockets. And the father remained sullen when his only descendant did not want to share his precious time with him.

That night…

The teepee was shady. And so were hazy Yoka's eyes as she a couple of times blinked them. The deepest night cuddled Kaleva, a clouded, black sky above there somewhere… Buzz' steady respiration hissed somewhere at her ear, his soft shoulder as her mellow pillow. Why had she startled awake from her somnus; that was left as an unimportant mystery. And the sleep did not step back either.

The thoughts rambled. Unnoticed she nuzzled herself more towards the man, willing to flee the cold winter night. And so the sphere of ideas was aimed at him. How many nights had he held her like this? One, two, three… eighteen? That was not much. But affected they had, putting her fears gradually to the backstage. Proud Crescent _did care for her, after all._

Quite sure Yoka-hanen was not about her own emotions. Gradually she had learned to give respect towards this uncanny man, but how could she so suddenly forget how she was treated originally? But the new person who had tapped out of the concrete-hard cell, was mild, attractive. Not the dark twin-brother. And it was just this noveau character that itched her heart. _We have to learn to like each other… So his saddened voice had once pleaded. And she had learned. Learned to like… or even more than just like? Equally, the both mates were still lost in the primeval forest of senses._

So was the future shrouded. The skies would bring more foreigners to Kaleva, so she had apprehended from the Gibberish of the aliens. Chariots of fire would pick up Proud Crescent, so that he could lead the flying horses towards some arcane worlds? To the illusive spaces where he had been some kind of prince? That impression the girl still had of him, that he had some expressively high position in his own lands. Thus… what would happen to her and her people? Would there come some massive army to enslave all the population? No, that was a ludicrous idea. He had affirmed that those, from that strange _Star Command or whatever it was, would come in peace. And that their purpose was mainly to 'save' him with Sininen, Kalvakka and that red-fat-something. A tiny prejudice squeaked there loudly. What kind of monsters would there come? More of those midgets and blue-skinned oddities?_

Then… indeed, what would happen to _her? She was after all a wife, not just any village tootsie any longer. Somehow Yoka in her blurry sentiments found it atrocious, that this foreign person could actually just leave her here, and swoosh away. Away to the clouds from where he had so randomly fallen down… In addition, this wee notion made one affirmation about her consciousness. She __had affection towards him, since being afraid of this leaving. But, if he would abandon her, would that not chant brutally against his renewed manners? What had just happened today? His fondness shone through blaringly. Of course she had received kisses from him before, he had held her in his lap, but… there was a basinful of more fire this time. Evidently, this all lacked still the one basic element of marital life, but neither one of them had not yet been ready for that._

She winced a little. Something tousled her hair, and a little whisper came at her ear.

"Yoka…? You're not asleep?" Buzz there murmured. He had obviously woken up because of her swerving.

"Eh… _minae__ tuota luulin ettae sinae nukuit ja… Me think… yu… um…" Coyness struck, at least when he now had put his nose to an inch-distance of hers._

"What did you think?" His smile could be distinguished in the cryptic light of one single lantern.

He had made a question. And she would ask it now, if she could just somehow form an understandable query. And honestly. Maybe there could be a soothing response for her fears.

"Yu say yu me no ha-ate. Yu no me… _no mikae ihmeen tolvanan __sana__ se nyt olikaan…? Yu no me le--- __no voi tursas, kuusitoista ketunhaentaeae, mikae se oli… Yu no me levv? Uhh… Leev? " She felt her cheeks shimmering with shame. She did not well remember English in the middle of the night._

His expression turned severe. "What are you trying to say? Do you mean… _leave?"_

"Leeve, yes me meen leeve. Yu no me leeve?"

Snap. What was wrong? Lightyear's blue eyes grew despondent, his arms twining themselves firmly around her. "Yoka little, why would you think… that I would leave you? And leave you where? Is that what you're trying to ask?"

"Me… me fear yu… yu… _no ettae sinae jaetaet minut taenne ja menet pois, missae minae sitten asun ja elaen jos sinae menet pois…?"_

"Yoka, I'm sorry, but I don't understand what you're trying to ask", he sighed, giving a peck on her forehead, "But don't fear anything. I'll take care of you. I have promised that to myself and to you, that… I'll never, never treat you humiliating again. Poor little thing, try to sleep now. Don't fear anything." Wrapping her more under the blankets, Buzz endeavored to place the night back. Neither one of them could actually make a conclusion of what was begged and what retorted. But he had said _no, had he not? Maybe Proud Crescent in truth was not the cruel brute any longer. Nevertheless… did he mean what with that long lingo? Could he have meant that… he was going to take her __with him? To those quaint spheres? That could not be probable. Accompanied by the muddled state of mind, her heavy eyelids flapped close, and the dreams came back.       _


	16. Zither's last chime

---A few days later----

The engines of Star Cruisers 591 and 89 as well as the Alliance transport's motors roared in the windy air. The sand under them whirled somewhat, as the jet engine fire melted it from the thick soil frost. Almost the whole population of Kaleva had gathered around one open square on the village's edge, to receive the visitors from the skies. Hearts pumping up in their throats, Team Lightyear and Zarah stood in the front line, with Yoka and some _viisaat. Vainamoinen sat in a palanquin further there. Finally the rumble settled, and ramps were thrown out from the space ships. A group of stunned aliens climbed down. Commander Nebula was followed by King Nova, Emperor Zurg and his wife, Booster's family, and lastly Warp stomped out. Yet, their immediate families were suddenly thrown into the background, as a pack of enthusiastic tribe children and adolescents ran to surround the arrivals. Amazed yelps and shouts sprung from the throats of the kids. There if where were strange creatures, now! Odd shapes and unusual skin colors bedazzled the spectators._

_"Toinen Sininen!"_

_"Eipaes vaan kolmaskin!"___

_"Katsokaa, siellae on moehkoefanttejakin!"___

A couple of young girls gripped Warp's hands. He was giving sidelong glances to find his cherished loved one. They started tittering to drag him towards Mira, who experienced a similar kind of assault.

_"Sininen!__ Sininen!" the Kalevans giggled. They brought those blue aliens very near each other, obviously thinking that they were mates or relevant._

"Hey, hey, lemme go, ya li'l gibberish-talking teasers!" Darkmatter tried to drive away his court.

"Don't be mad at these children, they think that we are related or something", Nova sneered.

"Yeah, yeah, although my mug is blue, I'm not any new-age obi-van-kenobi-Tangean. Have ya seen my babe Za? These folks are gonna stamp her flat under their feet!" He leered worriedly furthermore around. It was hard to see over the heads of the eight-foot tall young warrior men, who goggled at the scenery as keenly as the tots. Warp got the suddenly-scared besiegers to flinch, as he activated his rocket boots and hovered for a while in the air to see a glimpse of a certain red-hair. And there she was, somewhere in the back row, trying to push her way forth in the middle of tall native women. Then clearing the way truly began. Not caring about the tight formation of the bystanders, Darkmatter jostled people out of his way with his elbows, fearing that he would lose the sight of his dearest again. A couple of more steps, and she would be in the shelter of his arms. Petty tears glimmered in his eyes, as he poked the last man out of his way, encountering ultimately the stray. Before she had time to utter anything, Warp lifted her high in the air, messing her face and neck with ardent kisses. Teardrops began trickling down her jowls, too, as Zarah apprehended being in his strong arms, clasped against his safe chest. She flung her arms around his neck and kissed him as greedily back. The children that had pursued the dashing half-robot, were gawking at the whole show with saucer-wide oculars. That wide blue person with the bizarre arm had after all nothing to do with Sininen? The color had misled.

On the other end of the square, Buzz was traipsing towards Zurg, Yoka a bit shyly swaying behind him.

"Yu fami-lee here now?"

"Yeah… Craters, there!" his smile was drawn from ear to ear, as he noticed Zurg's majestic figure standing against the last beams of the setting sun. Clearing his way as violently as Warp, he darted forth to hug his father. 

"Daddy!"

As relieved Zora was, when he could put his arms around the younger male. "Quasars, you shall not comprehend how worried I have been because of you…" He took a bit distance from Buzz, giving a strange frown at his son's clothing. "What on Tatooine have they put you wearing, Buzzy Boy? I have always harped on you that green does not go together with your black hair at all. Purple shall be good, or Bourgogne red. And now there has to be a good excuse why you were so dull to talk to your father during the travel time! What the quasars was there so much better to do than to hear my glorious, nifty paragraphs?"

Lightyear could nothing but chuckle at the extraneous side comments. Zurg was always so strict about outer appearances and unnecessary details, and obviously fifty percent more egoistic in those issues than Warp. And… Yoka-hanen behind the Captain had been scratching her hair for a short while, now. She did not fathom almost at all the discussion subject. Knocking his shoulder, she hawked, "Yu brot-hee com-ee see yu?"

He had blacked out her presence. Putting his hand on her shoulder and drawing her nearer, he pointed at Zurg, "Emh, no, that's not my brother, he's my father. Zoxedas-- Zoxedjzz-- bah, never mind the forename. _Zora Lightyear."_

"Aha… Fa-dher…?" she floundered the different-language word. The tall person in front of her seemed a bit too young-looking to be Proud Crescent's father, but possibly she would need to get acquainted with all kinds of extraordinariness after this.

"And this here is my stepmother, Mariañ Lightyear", he pointed at the girl behind the Emperor. This went over Yoka's comprehension. She had never heard the definition 'stepmother' before, so she was left in the belief that that brown-haired jovial girl was either his little sister or cousin.

Initially Zurg had been surprising that foreign, very exotic-looking, brown-skinned woman beside his son. The boy seemed to be keen on explaining to this stranger all kinds of things, whereas she obviously had never taken English lessons according to that very weird accent. But why did Buzz hold her hand like that? Many kinds of cookings were done in the Emperor's brains. "And this shall be…?" he nodded towards the Kalevan.

Alacrity rose up to Buzz' nose. This was the issue Zoxedasžeĉ had been pestering him for long enough! Feeling triumph in his heart, Lightyear played with the syllables on his tongue a bit before answering. Wining his arm around the girl's waist, he snuggled her against his side. "Dad, this is… Yoka-hanen, chief Vainamoinen's daughter. She… sh-she-sss…" The well-planned sentence turned to sputter. Poor Buzz' cheeks began shimmering crimson red, but he forced himself to cough the subject out. "S-s-ssss-shshsshhh--ss-she's my w-wife. I love her. I love her, Dad!"

The Emperor's jaw dropped. And so did Buzz', as he grasped, what he actually had slipped out of his throat. Love. He had never even mentioned that before to _her… not ever before that he __loved her. It just had slithered out like that, with the storm of emotions he carried inside. Perhaps he had not even understood it before, either. And for Zurg the news were something so crushing, that he got only some garbled titubation out from between his lips. Yoka was baffled playing with her necklaces, she had again heard new words that were without an understandable meaning._

"Luv-eer… wat ees, Praad Cr'ressaant? Lower? Yu short me tall?" she shook her head. Buzz looked up to her, taking her both hands in his.

"No, no. To love, it's like… when you _like someone more than just 'like'. I mean that I like you, but a lot more actually than that. Umh, I mean…"_

She smiled confused back, not internalizing wholly the subject.

Behind her, Warp and Zarah had appeared visible from amongst the crowd. A toddler had been picked up from one ship's cabin, perching initially in the woman's arms. Although being so long separated from her mommy, the tiny girl seemed to be the same imp as always. This time it was interested in plucking the fringes of mama's headscarf. If Choi had not given hard scolds, the pest would have obviously destroyed the whole Kalevan handiwork creation with her too-quick itchy fingers. And Agent Z was merrily waving his hand to his friend, "Heya, absconder pal! Did ya find the imperial dynasties already?"

And idea popped abruptly in Lightyear's mind. He forcefully ripped Darkmatter's wrist communicator lid open, beginning to search for a translator device in it. No one of the present around him had a Babelfish interpreter. 

"Blast! Where is it? What the jabbering asteroids is this kind of widget?" he pressed the buttons one after another, activating a compass, a little Tetris game, a holo-version of the _Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and everything else not relating to assembler work. Of course a Xanedian thingamajig was somewhat unknown for him. _

"Hey! That ain't Star Command's coffee automat! Do ya know what these things cost?" Darkmatter pushed him away.

"I… I need to translate one word!" Buzz spread his arms hotheaded.

"What the cratervipers…?" Agent Z glared, "Translate one word? An' because of that ya wanna put my com-gimmick to pieces?"

"No, no, no, you don't understand! Do you got a Kaleva-dialect extended nanodatabase of Sivakka-language in it?" Lightyear panted.

"I dunno. Why's that so important to ya now?"

"It is, it is, it is!" Buzz was to lose his temper, hopping with his feet together on the ground.

"Okay, okay, stop buzzin' like that, ya buzzard. Well ya definitely got ways to welcome your friends after a long alienation…" Darkmatter typed something, then nodded, "Yeah, found. What do ya wanna know?"

"What is 'to love' in Sivakka?"

"Okay, you're weirder than I ever thought. Ya keep playin' a Z Empire Prince, then an Indian and now ya wanna learn to speak Abracadabra, eh? I've seen it all now. Well… it's something like… hm… how do ya spell that? _'Rakastaa'?"_

"That's it! Thanks!" And so he sprung away, leaving the eyes-rolling bluish man snorting to himself.

As the fervent Captain achieved Yoka again, he gripped her from her arms, bending her down to him. In his sudden spell of fondness, he paid no attention that he had tens of people around him.

"To love, do you understand, Yoka? To love, _rakastaa. Do you understand what I try to say to you? I love you", he breathed against her cheek, squeezing the slender girl in his embrace._

Her mouth flopped open, her large, gray eyes shining with bewilderment. Was that now _it, the little comforting message she would have wanted to hear from the beginning on? It would have had soothed her fears and anxiety in the sorrow days, but instead there was only that insulting. But Buzz had desperately begged her to forgive him, begged to let him compensate all the bale and angst he had so stupidly made her suffer from. Love. Did he truly mean it? That this man dropped from the sky really would feel love towards the person that had been lower than a slave for him? But… the previous eras with him, his beginning affections, they had showed, and showed coherently. The fondles, kisses, the humble apologies… they had evolved love?_

"Yu… me… l-l---?" she gulped as he had began to caress her cheek with his lips.

"Shht… Yes, I love you. I want to share my life with you, and… I'm still so sorry about all the nasty things I made you go through because of my savagery… I want you to come home with me, settle down, be mine…"

The language barrier did not break them apart any more. Emotions went over it, and as Lightyear picked her up from her armpits and poples to rest completely in his arms, she for the first time shyly dared to answer to his kisses. 

Zurg and the others were left squirmy to envisage the Captain, as he went on carrying the girl away through the multitude. Their existence had fallen to the sea of oblivion in his vision, he saw only her, sensing the fiery burn in his heart. Yoka quivered with abashment and certain kind of intoxication in his tight clasp, also no more paying attention to the spin of world around her. Lightyear clogged the flap of his teepee behind him, closing the night only for the two. Mildly, gently, he began showing her his devotion, but now as a lover, as a husband. And no outsider dared to step even close their chambers that night. They were left in their own, soft heaven.

Emperor Zurg could not get a gasp out of his throat. Eyes round as flying saucers, he still gawped after the hurriedly vanished couple. A long index prodded mindlessly the air molecules.

"Th---thr---bzz--- zzz--- grohh--- Z?" some weird gurgle was heard. 

So was the male Darkmatter also thunderstruck, his visage expressing the same stupefaction. "Lightrocket is a… _hubby?" he grazed his facial hair._

"Uh-huh, Darkie. I guess you'll hear the whole story from himself… uh… tomorrow." Zarah under his arm smiled. "It's uh… kind of long. But yeps, he's married."

"Hum, neato. And he kept complaining he had trouble in getting the gals to swirl around him. But kinda wondering his taste, unless the lass was walking with stilts. Since when has he started liking _taller girls? I mean, that one… well drat, his crown barely reached her mouthline!"_

However, Zurg's sudden spluttering cut short his sarcasms. He was sneezing his nose into a huge purple handkerchief, and emphatically his young wife patted his arm.

"There there, hun, my own big Googly Bear!"

"Sniff! My little Buzzy Boy is all grown up and married! Snuff! Spurf! Wahaaahhhaaaaaah!" the sturdy ex-dark lord burst into a fountain of tears. "I am so happy! Sne-eef! Buzzy Boy is in love with a dandy girl!"

"There, there, Zurry Purry, I'm happy too. Here, hun, take another tissue." Mariañ patted his bowed head and passed a hankie to him.

"Uff what's wrong with this people?" Commander Nebula arrived on the spot. He had been badly lost among the teeming natives, then with efforts had shooed a pack of children away that had come to laugh at his height and his big moustache. He had also supervised that King Nova met his daughter, and that the royal was safely escorted back in the ship. Unfortunately, the noble Tangean had been horrified to see where he had landed. _The Planet of Apes –as he had decided to call Kaleva- was even more devolved than he had originally assumed. Huffing and puffing Mira had pursued her father inside the spacecraft, muttering something about racism and dignity. There Zeb had been left at the mercy of the tittering kids. Now he was hands on hips astonishing what was going on here._

"Alright, where's Buzz? I've been waiting for the last few months to meet him!"

Zarah and Warp looked uneasy. Zurg cried like a cascade, and XR (who had also just found his chums) tried to whistle something.

"Now what's this fooling about? Where is he?" he tapped the frosty soil with a boot.

"Buzz umm… well you'll see him tomorrow", Warp mumbled.

"He… went away with his Kalevan wife. He understood something deeply important about himself and his life just five minutes ago", Choi added.

Zeb fell on his hinterland for thunderstruck. Somebody calmly told that Buzz was married?

"What in the name of antigravitons? You… you must be throwing in bad jokes!" he wiped his forehead sitting on the snow. But, it was not a jest. The explains were tossed back and forth, and lastly Zeb went on scowling about people's strange habits to bind more and more often those 'secret marriages'. The Darkmatters could nothing but chuckle, whereas Zora had got rid of his tears, gloating something about being one day a grandfather and able to knit little tiny dandily purple baby socks.

In the night, at the common square, were kept grand celebrations once again. At the bonfire, four full moons gleaming as silvery plates above there, were danced, told legends and heard stories from beyond the clouds. The most honored hero was not present, but it did not much flatten the almost magical atmosphere. The songs reached the stars, enchanting the listeners in the frosty nocturne. Kaleva rejoiced, although it knew it would lose its new brothers and sisters soon. 

However, somewhat bitterly the two following days trudged by. Arrogant were some of the new skyfallen, triumphing in their gleaming huge chariots. Sininen had a father, who wanted not to receive the old Vainamoinen's respect. And he drew his daughter away, _suuremo Sininen did not any more share her people's wisdom. Leaning to his cane, the aged chief stood at the entrance of the Council teepee. Those fine, high, glistering carriages, ready to vanish inside the clouds… standing initially behind the huts, taller than those. He sighed, turned about and sat down on his throne. Future… what would it bring now along?_

Yoka-hanen's diurnals were sealed. Or so had the sky-walking man decided. She was his, and would follow his footsteps… further than the infinity. Everyone that passed by Buzz Lightyear, could understand he was crazy about her. The disgust had turned to fiery love, the detestation to tenderness. And the laws announced his rights concerning the gift… she was his property, he was free to lead her in the clouds if he wanted.

The girl had turned melancholic, a smile did not brush her features. Kaleva was now history for her, just a tale of past… she was made to float away, away from under the fresh winds. But what did she have here, after all? Her father… towards whom her feelings were very mixed. She honored him in her heart, cultivated, but he had turned so distant. She would not have wanted to whisper goodbye, but it was a must. However, in the shades of Proud Crescent's hut she stayed, not willing to see her patron's wrinkled brows. He was distant, merely a shadow.

Yoka watched, as her property was packed up, and carried inside one of those white giants. What kind of teepee was in the stars? He had talked about houses like Suur-Kaleva possessed, strange races that teemed along wide streets… in some _kaupunki. Weird places… weird stories. Angst… fear… excitement… her emotions could not decide what to express. Occasionally a couple of tears trickled down her cheek, being wiped away by a thick thumb… or by a pair of lips. Insecurity… Yoka was not certain yet about her feelings towards __him. But by the time, they would establish, a love would evolve. There was only a small barrier to climb over any more. And Buzz, he would not push her. He would have patience, mild patience, this time. He could see beyond her fright, he was assured. Love was there, just an inch away._

Oddly enough, her owner had actually asked if she wished to pursue him, or stay in Kaleva with him. Buzz had gulping prepared also to the latter, against all the odds also _ready for it. But used to the differing traditions, she could not understand being able to have any counterargument against him. She could not see that it was an option for once __her to decide. If Yoka was given to this noble __sankari, his path would be also hers. Thus… perhaps the plains of Kaleva would fall into nothingness. Although being the chief's daughter, she was none kind of 'princess'. The grand ruler was elected from among the __viisaat, and granted with a responsible career of lifetime. When the old Vainamoinen would finally pass away, some other __viisas would step on the throne. And Proud Crescent, although being an honored Kalevan, had no tapping among this enlightened elite. Someone who could not master a single rune, was immediately kicked out of the council if he tried claiming a position there. So, this hero space ranger could never become the highest in this culture. However, he was an esteemed Brother, a man who __was a legend, himself._

Lightyear's heart also suffered, amidst all the elation. He did not know what he would become when getting back home. All the usual things of his 'normal life' felt so scattered… as if they had never existed. He was supposed to be a space ranger? But why returning to the everyday chores felt somehow so foreign? Why did he feel himself being so outgrown about everything? With a strange mien, Commander Nebula had been listening to his mental odyssey here. This home-coming male was not one hundred percent _the Buzz Lightyear he had used to. No, there was something a lot more mature in him, now. And a touch of glumness._

As the topic was pondered furthermore, both Zeb and Zurg admitted that obviously the Captain would need a break from his everyday. So, no space ranger activity at least now. The Morphean had far something else to think about, he would need to establish a new life as a married man. Not a soul could come to know another human being in such a tiny time as Yoka and he had spent together. No… they would both need time to learn to know each other. For the past's Buzz, a family had been an unknown definition. Suddenly Star Command was not his whole life any longer… he could not recover so quickly. A Sabbath would be for his best. Well, not the first time. His career had been cut short because of the mental illness a few years ago. Now… because of love and other kind of confusion. So, he was not a space ranger today, nor tomorrow. When again, not even his synapses concluded it.  

The day came when Kaleva would be left behind. The wakening culture would perhaps pull through… find its origins, grow in wisdom. Commander Nebula had mentioned to Vainamoinen about the possibilities to contact the worlds beyond the stars. Some communication devices were left in the hands of _viisaat, if they would want to stay in touch with him, or something. Time would show… perhaps, perhaps._

The starships were ready to vanish from the village's outskirts. One after another, the space rangers and their relatives walked up along the slopes, disappearing inside those metallic giants. A teeming concourse of natives was escorting them, giving goodbyes. Perhaps some day the white wagons would come back to greet them again. Still no one seemed to notice that one person was missing… or was there someone to perceive?

Yoka measured the crowd with her regard. Waving hands, whistles, it was blurry. A fist softly pushed her shoulder, asking her to step along the ramp. In the ashen hull was a door, black like a toothless maw. But the hand assured, that it was not a road to death, not a road to desolateness. But her eyes did not meet the one she had been searching for. Gone. He did not want to see her, did he? He was distant. Vainamoinen was gone.

"_Hyvaesti__, kunnioitettu isaeni…" a small whisper gurgled out of her lips. It had no meaning for these bizarre aliens, only for her it had a meaning. Goodbye, father…_

The roar of the crystallic fusion engines echoed distantly inside the Council tent. Abandoned it was, only a hoary, wizened figure sat in the shady corner. The Kalevans cheered out there, in the brisk frost morning. But here, a moody, tiny kantele's melody played in the air, soon accompanied by a timid, raspy voice. Long fingers caressed the zither's strings.

_Poika tuonpuolen pilvien, sankar takaa revontulien_

_Kerran saapui Kalevaan, saapui Kansan asuinmajaan._

_Voimaa uhoten ja tahtoa manaten_

_Kilvan ylpisteli kanssa punarevon, kilvan keekoili kanssa aamukilon,_

_Kunnes putosi puusta poikanen, sankar suurivoimainen._

_Paistatteli aikansa, aikansa kilvoitteli,_

_Kunnes lehahti Kokkolintu vuorelta, pulu harjanteelta tuli ja nokki._

_Vasket, rintakilvet rikki raapaisi_

_Poikaselta rautaiset helyt raastaisi_

_Nyt oli sankar ilman kunniaa, sisin vailla suuria._

_Nyt oppi poika kuun, oppi kautta kannon ja itki,_

_Ettei keekoilla suo, venhoa korskeudella varustaa._

_Oppipa poika, oppi ja itkun tirruutti._

_Ja sankar suurempi sijan sai, mies nyt ulos astuvi kai._

_Uudet vasket takovi, kupariset kalvosimet tekevi,_

_Kunnian sai sankari, uuden elon mestari._

_Ja venhoineen pois liitelee, mut oppina kokemus kiittelee_

_Ei keekoile poika kuun, vaan sankar suurempi sikisi,_

_Kuun taa katosi, sinne kipusi.            _

_Ja kunnian soi Kalevalle, kansalle virren sorean.   _

A new legend was sung. A teardrop silently fell onto the floor… And the clouds shrouded the vanishing vessels… 

The End.

  
  


* * *

  
Thanks for reading! Reviews/Feedback would be welcome (Especially if someone spots illogicalities or really terrible grammar errors.). 


End file.
